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MEMOIR 



MRS. SUSANNA ROWSON, 



ELEGANT AND ILLUSTRATIVE EXTRACTS FROM HER 
WRITINGS IN PROSE AND POETRY. 



ELI AS NASON, M. A 



La nature et le cceur sont inepuisables. 

Bernardin de Saint Pierre. 



With her book and her voice and her lyre, 
to wing all her moments at home: 

And with scenes that new rapture inspire, 
as oft as it suits her to roam, 

Will she have just the life she prefers ? 

Cowper. 




ALU A X )'. X. Y. : 

JOEI, MINSELL 

18 7 0. 









■T?3 27 



c?M& 



DEDICATORY. 



ESTIMABLE AND LONG TRIED FRIEND, 

JOHN WARD DEAN, A.M., 



WHO BRINGS TO 



THE STUDY OF EARLY AMERICAN LITERATURE, 

A RETENTIVE MEMORY, A SOUND JUDGMENT, A REPINED TASTE, 
AND AN ARDENT ZEAL ; 



WHOSE MENTAL ACQUISITIONS ARE EQUALLED ONLY BY 
HIS MODESTY AND GOOD SENSE, 

THE FOLLOWING PAGES ARE MOST RESPECTFULLY 

Inscribed, 



HIS VERY OBEDIENT SERVANT, 

ELIAS NASON 

Brigutside, Jan. 1, 1870. 



A MEMOIR 



MES. SITSAXXA ROWSON, 



CHAPTER I. 

Dear to memory are the scenes of our early days, though then 
the* cup of existi nee teas often mingled with the tear of affliction. — 
Mi;s. RowsON. 

The ship hangs hovering on the verge of death.— Falconer. 

Mrs. Susanna Rowson was one of the most 
remarkable women of her day. Her life is as ro- 
mantic as any creation of her gifted pen, and is a 
beautiful illustration of the potency of a large, 
glowing heart, and a determined will to rise supe- 
rior to circumstance and achieve success. She was 
the only daughter of Lieutenant, afterwards Cap- 
tain William Haswell, of the British navy, and 
was born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England, in 
1762. Her mother's maiden name was Susanna 
Musgrave, 1 and she died in giving her infant 



'The Musgrave family is of German origin, and settled in Eng- 
land as early as the Norman conquest. Camden styles it "the 
martial ami warlike family of Musgrave." Mu» signifies fen; 
grwoe, governor ; i.e., the governor of the fens, as landgrave, etc. 

Arms : az. six annulets, or. — Burfa '8 CommoTU r8of England, Sup.. 
p. 15. 



6 A MEMOIR OF 

daughter, 1 whom she named with her own name, 
and baptized with her blessing, to the world. 
Lieutenant Haswell, being then engaged in the 
revenue service on the American station, 2 married 
sometime afterwards, Miss Rachel, daughter of 
Ebenezer and Elizabeth (Hudson) Woodward, 3 of 
George's island, in Boston harbor, by whom he 
had three sons, Robert, William, and John Mon- 
tresor, an account of whom will be found in a 
subsequent part of this work. 

The infancy of Mrs. Rowson was passed in Eng- 
land, under the " watch and ward " of a most 
faithful nurse, of whom she ever spoke in terms of 
grateful praise. 

Having settled pleasantly with his family in a 
delightful valley at Nantasket, Mr. Haswell now 
desired to bring his little daughter to America, to 
be nurtured by his excellent and pious lady under 
his own roof; and for this purpose he returned to 
England in 1766, and receiving Susanna and her 



'In the preface to the Trials of the Human Heart, Mrs. Rowson 
says : " My mother lost her life in giving me existence." She lies 
buried under one of the churches in Portsmouth, England. 

2 W. Musgrave, Esq., was one of the commissioners of the cus- 
toms in England, 1767. 

3 Ebenezer Woodward was the son of Smith Woodward of Dor- 
chester. The will from which the pedigree is derived, bears the 
date of 17o8. His daughter Mary married Hezekiah Hudson, of 
Cohasset, and had issue, Scarlet Hudson, born January 20, 1775. 



MRS. 8U8ANNA BOWSON. 7 

affectionate nurse, embarked with them in October, 
at Deal, on board a brig bound for Boston. 

The voyage was long and perilous. 1 The brig 
encountered the fearful storms and contrary winds 
of that inclement season, and the provisions failing, 
each passenger was finally put upon an allowance 
of a single biscuit, and a half a pint of water per 
day. Mrs. Rowson often spoke in after life of the 
intense thirst she then experienced, and of her 
bitter disappointment, when her father, with a 
tearful eye, presented her a cup of wine instead of 
water. Her faithful nurse subsisted many days on 
half of her own scanty allowance, affectionately 
reserving the other portion for her beloved Su- 
sanna, should they be reduced to a more terrible 
necessity. Having thus been driven to and fro by 
wintry storms for many weeks, and having endured 
the pangs of famine to the last extremity, their 
hearts were overwhelmed with joy when the sweet 
cry of "Land ahead ! " was heard late in the after- 
noon of the 28th of January, 1767. They were ap- 
proaching Boston harbor, and anticipating quick 
relief from their protracted sufferings ; but a severer 
trial yet awaited them. The wind rose suddenly ; 
the night fell darkling over the ill-fated vessel ; the 



'For a graphic description of this wintry voyage, Bee Mrs. Row 
sun's Rebecca, p. 152. 



8 A MEMOIR OF 

sleet encased the ropes in ice ; the sailors were 
benumbed with cold; the brig became unmanage- 
able; and to add to their dismay, they lost sight of 
the beacon 1 at the entrance of the harbor, and were 
drifting hopelessly in amongst the rocks and break- 
ers. At ten o'clock that dreadful night, their 
fears were realized. Suddenly the vessel struck 
a rock. It proved to be upon that long, low 
point running out north-westwardly from LovelPs 
island, 2 opposite Eam's head, in Boston harbor. 
The floods came beating violently over deck, and 
there, all through that long, cold, dreary, stormy 
night, the little weather-beaten company remained 
in agony, anticipating instant death. But the good 
brig held together; and when the tide receded 
in the morning, the kind people of the island wad- 
ing into the sea and placing a ladder against the 
side of the vessel, received the passengers and con- 
ducted them safely to the land ; the rounds of the 
ladder, however, being soon covered with ice, Lieut. 
Haswell did not dare to risk his little daughter on 



1 This was the Boston lower light. There was but one lighthouse 
in the harbor at that period. 

2 This island, lying between Long island and the Great Brew- 
ster, is about six miles from Boston. Many shiiis have been wrecked 
upon the shoal extending from it on the north-west side. " One 
ketch was carried out tu sea, and wrecked on Lovell's island, De- 
cember 25, 1645." — Drake's History of Boston, p. 391. 



MBS. SUSANNA BOWSON. 9 

them ; and so, fastening a strong cord round her 
waist, he swung her out over the bulwarks of the 
brig into the arms of a stout old sailor, standing 
up to his waist in the water to receive her. 

Amid such scenes of peril, Miss Susanna Has- 
well was receiving her first lessons in the school of 
human life ; and though she was then but just be- 
ginning to read a few letters from the strange pages 
of the book of Providence, her beautiful story of 
Rebecca shows how deeply they were imprinted on 
the tablets of her tender heart. 



10 A MEMOIR OF 



CHAPTER II. 

The surf '-beaten rocks and green hills of NantasJcet are perpetual 
memorials to remind us of those who prat planted among them the 
standard of the cross. — Lincoln. 

And in our life alone does nature live. — Coleridge. 

Hardly any spot along the irregular seaboard of 
our state presents to the eye more picturesque and 
beautiful local scenery, or awakens in the mind 
more interesting historical associations than the 
green headland of ISTantasket. It stands as a bold 
and everlasting sentinel to guard the chief entrance 
to our city, and every heavy laden ship that makes 
our port must pass Point Allerton and have its 
name announced at Telegraph hill. From the 
verdure-crowned eminences of Nantasket, you be- 
hold upon the east the broad Atlantic, now dotted 
with many hundred sails and breaking in gentle 
murmurs along the sandy shore; now lashed to 
fury by the howling tempest and lifting its angry 
surges to the skies; towards the north and west, 
your eye sweeps over the green islands of Boston 
harbor from the lower lighthouse to Fort Warren, 
Rainsford's island, the upper light, and still beyond 
to the city sleeping like a queen of beauty in the 
distance ; while to the south, it rests upon the pic- 



MRS. SUSANNA ROWSON. H 

tureeque islands of Quincy bay and Hingham harbor. 
It seems to be the very centre of a little world of 
beauty, and every spot within the field of vision has 
been consecrated by events which constitute an 
interesting portion of the history of our nation. 

As early as 1624 a settlement was made on this 
delightful promontory by the celebrated John Old- 
ham, 1 and in 1630 the assessment on its inhabitants 
was just one pound sterling. A fort was ordered 
to be constructed here in 1633 and a meetinghouse 2 
was erected the ensuing year. The name of Hull 
is supposed to have been given to the place from 
that of one of its early settlers. 

The principal village is built upon a single street 
which winds gracefully between two gentle emi- 
nences across Nantasket head, and thence along 
a very narrow beach towards Point Allerton and 
Strawberry hill. At the period of which I write, 
this place contained about one hundred and fifty 
inhabitants, engaged principally in fishing and in 
agriculture, who lived in a state of primitive sim- 



1 Killed at t lu- greal swamp fighl in Narragansett, December 
19th, 1675. 

'Incorporated, May 29, 1644 It is nine miles south-east from 
Boston, with which it lias Bteam boat communication, in I860, it 
had two hundred and tun inhabitants, and tin' number of voters 
in 1869, was seventy-five. The plan of its old tun on Telegraph 

hill is said to have been draw n liv Lafayette. 



12 A MEMOIR OF 

plicity, extending a cordial hospitality to such 
strangers as might chance to visit their secluded 
village, spinning long yarns of ocean life, or discuss- 
ing politics in the bar-room of the venerable Mrs. 
Lobden's tavern ; and attending regularly every 
sabbath on the ministrations of the Rev. Solomon 
Prentice, 1 their beloved minister, whose unpretend- 
ing church 2 stood on the margin of the little sheet 
of water in the centre of the valley. 

On the day succeeding the shipwreck at Lovell's 
island, Lieutenant Haswell and his little daughter 
reached their home at ISTantasket. The house 3 
which they occupied is still standing. It is a large 
one story wooden building with a huge chimney 



1 The Rev. Solomon Prentice was settled at Hull, on March 21st, 
1768, where he continued till 1772. His predecessor, the Rev. 
Samuel Veazie, was ordained there in April, 1753, and dismissed 
in 17G7. 

2 This " rustic temple " as Mrs. Rowson terms it, was blown 
down in what was called the great gale of September 23, 1815, 
since which no church edifice has been erected at Nantasket. 

"Now owned by Matthew Hunt, Esq. It is very ancient and 
contains five rooms below ; the posls of the house being uncovered 
within and the attic unfinished. The court in front is shaded with 
ancient apple and pear trees ; while rose and lilac bushes skirt the 
tottering walls. In visiting this house in August, 1860, a woman 
brought to me a very fine looking babe, hight Eliza Josephine 
Carney, born March 19, 1860, which she observed was the first 
chill born in the house for more than half a century. Mr. Clement 
Millaken now (1869) lives in the Haswell house. There is on a 
panel of one of the doors, a very curious landscape scene, said to 
have been painted by Lieut. Haswell himself. 



MBS. SUSANNA IiOWSON. 13 

in the centre, and is styled the parsonage. It is 
pleasantly situated upon rising land on the south 
side of the street, a little eastward of the ancient 
house of entertainment and the church. It over- 
looks Nantasket harbor, just beneath it, on the 
right ; and Telegraph hill protects it from the 
northern blast. The quiet burial place upon the 
green margin of the bay is near; the sandy beach 
a little farther on ; and indeed the fine delightful 
hills of Hull are all within the distance of a morn- 
ing's walk. It was in this house and amid these 
lovely scenes that Miss Iiaswell passed the days of 
girlhood. Here her mind received its shape and 
coloring, and here amidst His marvelous handi- 
work her heart first learned to glow in adoration 
of her Maker. Endowed by nature with a lively 
fancy and a vigorous constitution, she spent much 
of her young life in sports and rambles over the 
hills ami valleys of Xantasket. She collected shells 
and flowers, of which she was most passionately 
foud, upon the winding beach ; she sailed out over 
the beautiful bay with her father in his little boat ; 
she gathered berries, early red, upon the sum in- 
side of Strawberry hill, and from Point Allerton 
Bhe saw with glad surprise the golden tressed sun 
come up from the old ocean's bed, and watched the 
increasing sail of the proud merchantman bearing 



14 A MEMOIR OF 

past the headlands into port. Sometimes a ship- 
wreck, too, upon that dangerous shore would bring 
to mind her own keen sufferings in the harbor, and 
awaken all the sympathies of her young and tender 
heart. 

Lieutenant Haswell was a man of liberal culture. 
His library was, for the times, extensive, and his 
books well chosen. His daughter had acquired 
the art of reading, as by intuition ; and at the age 
of ten, or twelve, read Dryden's Virgil, Pope's 
Homer, Shakespeare and Spenser, 1 fluently and 
understandingly ; and her enunciation was remark- 
ably correct and pure. She loved these classic 
authors, and continued to peruse them with increas- 
ing interest to the end of life. Her knowledge of 
language was derived rather from studying elegant 
productions, than from the formal and technical 
rules of grammar and rhetoric. She also early 
evinced a taste for music. Her sprightliness and 
proficiency soon attracted the attention of our great 
lawyer and statesman, James Otis, 2 who usually 



1 The following passage from her Sarah has reference doubt- 
less to herself: I have heard her father say that at ten years old, 
she read with propriety and seemed fully to comprehend all the 
beauties of Pope's Homer, Dryden's Virgil, and other works of the 
same tendency ; Spenser and Shakespeare were great favorites 
with her."— P. 11. 

2 This great lawyer and statesman was born February 5, 1725 ; 
married Ruth Cunningham, 1755 ; made his famous plea against 



MSB. SUSANNA UOWSON 15 

spent his summers at Nantasket and who was a 
frequent visitor at Mr. Harwell's house. 1 He often 
took his little scholar, as he called her, on his knee, 
heard her recite poetry and instilled into her inqui- 
sitive mind those principles of liberty, of which he 
was one of the most eloquent advocates in America. 
Living in comparative affluence, Lieutenant Has- 
well enjoyed the society of many other distinguished 
individuals, most of whom were officers of the 
crown, 2 with whom his little daughter was a general 
favorite; so that nurtured thus in this romantic spot 
with the bounding ocean on the one hand and the 
refined society of Boston on the other, her mind 
received those deep impressions of the external 
beauties of creation, gained that clear insight into 
human character, and developed those seeds of 
genius which rendered her pen so fertile and so 
brilliant in her subsequent life. ISTor is it strange 



the Writs of Assistance, 1T(!1 ; was elected to the Stamp Art 
congress, 1 7 < > ~> ; was beaten by the royalist Robinson, 1770 ; ami was 
killed by lightning in 1 783. 

The house which he occupied at Hull is still standing and the 
study where the fires of this brilliant genius were kindled is still 
shown. 

'Among his immediate neighbors were the Loring, Southen, 
Jones and (ionld families. 

- Speaking of this period of ner life, she says : " enjoying a con- 
stant intercom-.-. ■ with tin- families of the officers of the British 
army and navy then stationary, eight years ol my lite glided imper- 
ceptibly away."— Preface to Trials of th Human Ilnift.y. L6. 



16 A MEMOIR OF 

at all that a bright girl growing up under such 
peculiar circumstances should have lent a willing 
ear to stories of romantic fiction and woven a para- 
dise around her somewhat different from the actual 
world in which she was to play her part. Her step- 
mother seems to have been a pious and exemplary 
woman, and to have instilled into her daughter's 
mind the solemn sanctions and the obligations of 
religion. 

" I was," says Mrs. Rowson, in speaking of her 
own education, " early accustomed to make the 
Bible my study and guide ; and to settle all ques- 
tions of morality by the sermon on the mount and 
by the decalogue." Could she have chosen a better 
standard ? 



Mns. srsA \xa no wson. 17 



CHAPTER III. 

qnseque ipse miserrima villi, 

Kt quorum pars magna fui . — .En., l). II, 5. 

The great drama of the American revolution was 
now opening. The restrictions imposed upon our 
trade by the unwarrantable acts of the British par- 
liament had aroused the indignation of the colony. 
An appeal to arms was deemed inevitable, and 
as Boston was then the commercial emporium of 
America, it was destined to receive the first blow 
in the unjust aggression. Failing in the execu- 
tion of the iniquitous laws against our trade, and 
trembling before the spirit of patriotism which the 
burning words of Otis, Hancock and Adams had 
evoked, the royal governor, Bernard, seconded by 
the wily Hutchinson, sends for English troops to 
sustain his government; and in less than two years 
after her arrival, Miss Haswell must have seen with 
her own eyes, from the highlands of Hull, the en- 
trance of the British fleet of six ships of war, 1 with 
seven hundred troops into Nantasket roads. 



1 This occurred September 38, 1768. The following British ves- 
sels were then in the harbor: the Beaver, 11 guns; the Senegal, 
14: the Martin, 10 : the Glasgow, 20; the Mermaid, 28 ; the Bom 
iiey, 50 ; tlic Launaston, l<» ; the Bonetta, 10. 

3 



18 A MEMO IB OF 

From this period, until 1776, the constant arrival 
of British transports and men of war, the cannon- 
ading, the occasional skirmishes and collisions 
between the hostile parties, rendered Boston har- 
bor one of the most animated fields of observa- 
tion in the world. Miss Haswell was a daily and a 
central witness of the warlike preparations, floating 
pageantries and shifting scenes; nor was her ear 
inattentive to the details of the Boston massacre, 
to the discussion of the Boston port bill, or to the 
story of the destruction of the chests of tea in Bos- 
ton harbor. 

An officer of the crown with an American wife, 
Lieutenant Haswell lived, as it were, in a kind of 
neutrality, upon the dividing line between the con- 
tending forces. His house was the constant resort 
of British naval and military commanders; and his 
situation, as the preparations for the impending 
struggle advanced, became more and more criti- 
cal. The arrival of the splendid fleet of Admiral 
Graves, however, in the summer of 1774, soon fol- 
lowed by the Scarborough, the Boyne, the Asia 
and the Somerset men of war, bearing sixty guns 



Cols. Mackay and Pomroy arrived with their regiments from 
Cork, to protect the revenue officers, in 1768. About four thousand 
foreign troops arrived this year. — John Adams. 

Col. Dalrymple took possession of Castle William, in 1770. 



MSB. SUSANNA ROWSON. 19 

or more, inspired the loyalists with the hope that 
the provincials would he quickly brought to terms. 
But the mustering of soldiers in the interior, and 
the bloody conflict on Bunker hill, the dreadful 
sounds of which roll over Boston harbor, filling the 
Haswell family with dismay, dispel the illusion, 
and reveal an enemy which the veteran troops 
and armaments of England could not so easily in- 
timidate. 

The peninsula of Nantasket being very much 
exposed to the depredations of the British, the in- 
habitants, 1 immediately after the battle of Bunker 
hill, deserted their homes and fled into the interior, 
leaving their grain standing in the fields, and 
Lieutenant Haswell and his family the sole occu- 
pants of the place. 

General Washington assumed the command of the 
American army in July, and while constructing a line 
of entrenchments around the town of Boston where 
the British were now lying in masterly inactivity, 
one of those daring exploits occurred in the harbor, 
which seems more like a romance than a reality, 



'The general court caused the inhabitants of Hull to be removed 
in July. 17To. and a guard to he stationed at the entrance of the 
town, which remained until December of the same year. It was 
resolved in general court, September 9, 1776, that the guard thai 
did duty at Hull last winter, be paid "wages and vittelling." — 
See Mass. Archives, vol. < < i\. pp. 188, 189. 



20 A MEMOIR OF 

and which strikingly displays the intrepidity of the 
provincial soldiery. 

Early on Thursday morning, July 20th, two or 
three companies under Major Joseph Yose, 1 of Col. 
William Heath's regiment, went from Hingham 
to Kantasket, visited the house of Mr. Haswell, 
threw his family into great alarm, and then, drag- 
ging their boats noiselessly across the beach, rowed 
over the bay to the lighthouse, 2 which they set on 
fire about daybreak, within sight of several men of 
war. The British immediately sent out eight 
barges, a cutter and a schooner, in pursuit of them ; 
but our men soon reached the shore without the 
loss of life, two only of the number being slightly 
wounded. "I ascended," says an eye witness, " an 
eminence at a distance, and saw the flames of the 
lighthouse ascending up to heaven like grateful 
incense." 



'Major Joseph Vose, son of Elijah, of Milton, was born in 1742. 
He was afterwards colonel of the first regiment of Massachusetts 
troops. — Gen. Beg., April, 1855. 

2 The lighthouse at the entrance of Boston harbor was erected 
in 1715, at a cost of £2,885 17s. 8(1. currency. — Douglass, vol. I, 
p. 541. 

" Major Vose burnt the wooden portions of the lighthouse, 
brought off its furniture, lamps, etc., and the boats." — Frothingham. 
" The Americans grew so bold at length as to burn the light- 
house, though a man of war lay within a mile of them at the 

time." — History of the War in America, vol. i, p. 376. 



MliS. SUSANNA B0W80N. 21 

Major Vose returned the next day, bringing 
with him a thousand bushels of barley, and a quan- 
tity of hay. It was thought then that the British 
would burn the town, but Lieutenant Haswell's in- 
fluence probably prevented it. 1 

The British were then expecting large supplies 
from home, and soon began to reconstruct the light- 
house ; twelve tory carpenters, guarded by thirty 
marines, were engaged upon the work. 

On the 31st of July, 2 while a heavy cannonading 
was going on along the British and American lines, 
Major Tupper, 3 with a detachment of three hundred 
men, went out from Dorchester and Squantum to 
cut off the workmen at the lighthouse. Planting 
a single field piece under Major Crane upon ISTan- 
tasket point to cover his retreat, he landed in good 
order on the island amidst the fire of the marines, 
killed ten or twelve men on the spot, and took the 
remainder prisoners. On returning, he was so 
hotly pursued by the barges from the men of war, 



l Lett&ra of Mrs. Adams, p. 58 ; Siege <;/' Boston, p. 326. 

3 July 31, 1775. The George Tavern [Roxbury] was burned by 
tin' regulars, "anil the bouse at the lighthouse by tbe provincials 
(about three hundred) who took aboul thirty soldiers and a number 
of carpenters." "Cannonade from Charlestown ; " "verytrying 
scenes." — Timothy Newell's Journal. Mass. Hist. Coll., vol. i. p. 
365, | 1th Beries]. 

'■'Major in Col. Ward's regiment. — See Gen. Reg., January, L850, 
p. US. 



22 A MEMOIR OF 

that he was obliged to run one boat ashore, a young 
man by the name of Griffin being killed, as he was 
rowing it. At the same time a shot from Major 
Tupper's one-gun battery struck and sunk one of 
the pursuing boats, killing several of the crew. 

This action took place in the immediate vicinity 
and within sight of the Haswell family ; and in his 
rapid retreat from the firing of the enemy across 
Nantasket point, Major Tupper left a British sol- 
dier, by the name of Daniel Carnagon, twenty-six 
years years old, mortally wounded in their house, 
promising them if he made a safe retreat, to send 
for him upon the morrow. He was laid upon a 
mattrass, and efforts were vainly made to staunch, 
with bandages of linen, his bleeding wounds ; his 
life was ebbing fast; and after recounting with a 
faltering voice a little of his personal history l to 
the sympathizing family, and then attempting to 
say the Lord's prayer, he died before completing it. 

Mr. Haswell and his daughter then went out, and 
selecting a retired spot in a corner of his garden, 
dug with their own hands the soldier's grave ; and 
just as the sun's last beam was lingering on the hill 



1 He was the only son of a clergyman in the north of England, 
from whom he had received an excellent education. He died in 
the sunth-eastern room in the house, where traces of his blood are 
said to be still seen upon the floor. 



MRS. SUSANNA ROWSON. 23 

above, they wrapped the body carefully in a sheet 
and bore it silently to its lonely resting place. 
Miss Haswell read with trembling voice the burial 
service of the church of England over it ; and then 
the weeping family, as the evening shades were 
falling, laid it gently down into its narrow bed, 
and covering it with tender hands, left it sleeping 
peacefully by the moaning sea. 1 

In reference to this scene of bloodshed and of suf- 
fering, which is touchingly described in her Hebecca, 
Mrs. Rowson says : " It was a day never to be 
obliterated from the mind of the author, who par- 
took of all its horror, though but just emerging 
from a state of childhood." 

Through such scenes and trials she was develop- 
ing that tender sympathy for the unfortunate, that 
sweet humanity, that energy of character, and that 
heroism which she exhibited so steadily and so 
beautifully to the end of life. 



1 The spot whore this soldier was buried is indicated by three 
large apple trees, standing near the south-west corner of the gar- 
den of the parsonage. 



24 A MEMOIR OB 



CHAPTER IV. 

"You are too near the sea-coast," said the stranger, "and may 
hold correspondence with the enemy." — Rebecca, p. 179. 

The position of Lieutenant Haswell's little family 
was at this period extremely perilous. The town 
of Boston was in the hands of an insolent British 
soldiery ; and British men of war, as birds of evil 
omen, were intently watching from different points 
in the harbor the operations in the American lines, 
and bringing, as they could, their longest guns to 
bear upon them. 

The raids and skirmishes of the two armies to 
secure wood, or hay, or grain, upon the islands in 
the harbor, were constant, sometimes sanguinary ; 
and the lives and property of the inhabitants of 
these places, as well as of the neighboring towns, 
were exposed to imminent peril. From its promi- 
nent position and the easy access to it either by 
land or water, no spot between the two armies was 
more directly open to attack and pillage than JSan- 
tasket; and when its people immediately after the 
events related in the preceding chapter, fled for 
safety, Lieutenant Haswell's family with the Ame- 
rican guard remained as the sole occupants of the 



MRS. SUSANNA ROWSON. 25 

place. Allied to our cause by matrimonial ties, 
and yet holding his commission from the king of 
England, this officer endeavored through these 
exciting scenes to maintain a kind of unobserved 
neutrality, and the following incident will serve 
to exhibit his bearing towards the Americans, as 
well as the goodness of his heart. 

As Mr. Amos Binney and his brother Spencer, 
who had fled from Hull, were returning from Pettix 
island to bring off their flocks, a British vessel cap- 
tured them, and its captain placed them at the guns. 
Mr. Haswell hearing of their situation visited the 
commander of the vessel, told him that Amos was 
one of the selectmen of the town of Hull ; and also 
that he had a family dependent on him and must 
be released. The officers of the ship laughed at 
the appearance of the selectman and dismissed him ; 
retaining however his brother Spencer until Amos 
with a ransom of fourteen sheep succeeded in 
redeeming him. 

Observing the peculiar situation and bearing of 
Lieutenant Haswell, our officers were now induced 
to make favorable overtures to him to espouse the 
cause of liberty; but his prompt reply to them was 
that having served the king of England thirty years, 
it was now too late to take up arms against him. 
In those eventful times neutrality was impossible ; 



26 A MEMOIR OF 

Mr. Haswell had too high a sense of honor to dis- 
semble, his property was declared confiscated and 
himself and family, in the autumn of 1775 removed 
on parole by a guard of fifty men across the bay to 
the neighboring town of Hingham. Here they 
occupied a house on Lincoln street belonging at 
that time to Mr. Stephen Lincoln, but now to the 
Hon. Albert Fearing; and here they received kind 
and courteous attentions from Dr. Ebenezer Gay 
and son, from Captains John and Francis Barker, 
Colonel John and Deacon Joseph Thaxter, Mr. 
Stephen Lincoln, and other citizens of that town. 
They lived, however, in very humble and unpretend- 
ing style as prisoners of war ; and in their adversity 
the health of Mrs. Haswell now began to fail, while 
her husband's heart was sinking underneath its load 
of care. In this dark hour the cheerful voice and 
radiant smile of their young daughter often sent a 
gleam of sunshine through the house and raised the 
drooping spirits of the family. Keenly alive to the 
distresses of her parents, Miss Haswell not only 
assisted in the common labors of the scanty house- 
hold, but also learned the useful art of spinning 
cotton, wool and flax, and often spent the livelong 
day in twirling her busy wheel ; hearing sometimes 
above its monotonous hum the distant booming of 
the cannon from the hostile armies, and lifting up 



MBS. SU8A2T1TA ROWSOX. 27 

her earnest prayer to heaven for peace. In the 
way of recreation, she was accustomed to visit a 
beautiful forest of oak trees l on the border of the 
sea, and there admire the ever changing aspects of 
the ocean, or sing a cheerful evening song of praise 
to Him who rules above it. She was here passing 
through those scenes and trials which she after- 
wards so vividly portrayed in her story of Rebecca. 

In the autumn of 1776 a question arose in the 
town of Hingham respecting the support of the 
Haswell family, and the following petition was 
drawn up and sent to the general court : 

" To the Honorable, the Council of the State of Massa- 
chusetts Bay in North America, and the Honorable the 
House of Representatives the General Assembly convened. 
The petition of the subscribers, a committee of Inspection 
and Correspondence, humbly shows : — That William Has- 
well, late a lieutenant of one of the king of Great Britain's 
ships of war, and now on half pay from the crown of Great 
Britain was by the order of Major General Ward about 
twelve mouths agone taken and removed from his own dwell- 
ing house in Hull, with wife, mother, and three children or 
family to the neighboring town of Bingham, where he has 
resided ever si nee and lias been supported by the overseers 
of the said town till lately by order of Major General Ward. 
But the said Major General now declining to be any farther 
concerned about him. the said Haswell has made application 



rhe oak tree forest at ao J on land belonging now to Mr. Cal 

vin Lincoln. 



28 A MEMOIR OF 

to your HoDors' petitioners as a Committee aforesaid for 
support. Now your Honors' petitioners humbly pray the 
direction of your Honors how they shall conduct with 
respect to said Haswell and your Honors' petitioners as in 
duty bound will ever pray. 1 

" Theop s . Cushing. 

Jno. Fearing. 
Israel Beal. 
Jno. Whetcomb. 
Jabez Fisher. 
" Hingham, Nov. 11th, 1776." 

Iii the house of representatives, November 26, 
1776, it was 

'' Resolved, That the selectmen of the town of Hingham 
be and hereby are directed to take care of the within named 
Wm. Haswell and family, make such necessary provision 
for them as their circumstances require, and lay their ac- 
counts before this court until they shall receive further 
order. 

" J. Warren, Speaker." 

Under the support afforded him by this resolve, 
Lieutenant Haswell continued his residence in the 
fine old town of Hingham until the winter of 1777, 
his daughter's mind unfolding its beauty through 
adversity as the precious gem through the clippings 
and the burnishings of the artist. 



1 See Mass. Archives, vol. ccxi, pp. 193, 194. 



MRS. SUSANNA ROWSON. 29 



CHAPTER V. 

Sweet are the uses of adversity ; 

Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, 

Wears ye( a precious jewel in his head; 

And this our life exempt from public haunt, 

Finds tongues In trees, books in the running brooks, 

Sermons in stones, and good in every thing. 

As You Like It, Act n. 

As some apprehension was felt that in the event 
of an attack from the sea on the town of Boston, 
Lieutenant Haswell might be still in a position to 
render aid to the enemy, 1 it was deemed advisable 
that he should be removed somewhat further from 
the seaboard into the interior, and accordingly the 
following resolution was passed in the house of re- 
presentatives, December 5, 1777 : 

"Resolved, That the selectmen of Hingham be and 
hereby are directed to remove William Haswell and family 
to the town of Abington, and that the selectmen of Abington 
are directed to receive said Haswell and family, and allow 
them proper support, and present them their account to this 
court for allowance and payment. 

John Pitts, Speaker, pro tern. ' 



1 Israel Beal was appointed, in 17T7, to procure evidence of such 
persons as were Buspected of being inimical to this and the United 
States of America in this town." — Lincoln's History of Singham, 
p. KIT. 

'Mass. Archives, vol. ttxvi, p. 87. 



30 A MEMOIR OF 

The Haswell family arrived at Abington in desti- 
tute circumstances, at the close of the year 1777, 
and but for the intervention of former friends who 
forgot the party in the necessities of the man, 
would have been reduced by the chances of war, in 
that inclement season, to the sorest extremity. 
They occupied a poor old house standing alone on 
the outskirts of the forest, and two miles distant 
from any other dwelling. The father was an in- 
valid ; food and raiment were expensive ; the cold 
was intense; the snows were deep, and the daughter 
aided with her own hands in bringing fuel from 
the forest for the family. In later times she fre- 
quently recurred to these trying scenes of her life, 
and with a heart overflowing with grateful emotion, 
rehearsed the names and the deeds of those who 
alleviated their distresses. In one of her works, she 
writes : " Dear worthy inhabitants of Hingham, 
when I forget the friendship that alleviated my 
parents' sorrows, may this heart cease to beat." 1 

In another place she speaks of the disinterested 
goodness of a Thaxter, a Leavitt, and a Gray, 2 and 



1 Rebecca, p. 181. 

2 This was the Rev. Ebenezer Gay, D.D., of Hingham, born August 
26, 1096, graduated at Harvard University, 1714, and died March 
18, 1787, in the sixty-ninth year of his ministry. He preached a 
remarkable sermon on his eighty-fifth birthday, which was re- 
printed in England. — See Allen's Biog. Diet., in lorn. 



MBS. SUSANNA MOWSON. 31 

in her preface to the Trials of the Human Heart, re- 
ferring to the kindness of some American people 
to her parents, she most gratefully exclaims : 
" Would to Heaven it were in my power to render 
their names immortal, as my gratitude is un- 
bounded." In the spring of 1778 the selectmen 
of Abington, and soon after Lieutenant Haswell 
himself, laid a petition before the house of repre- 
sentatives for his removal under a flag of truce to 
Halifax, and on the 30th of May it was "resolved 
that the said Mr. Haswell have, and he hereby has 
leave to depart in the first cartel for Halifax, with 
his wife and children, at the public expense, he 
giving his parole to Major General Heath, com- 
mander-in-chief of the Continental army in this 
department." * Mr. Haswell and his family were 
soon after conveyed in a small vessel bearing a 
flag of truce, to Halifax, and thence to England. 
Here, I have been informed, he resided for some 
time at Hull upon the Humber; he soon, however, 
removed to the vicinity of London, where misfor- 
tune still attending him, he struggled several years 
to give his family a respectable maintenance. His 
daughter, now intelligent, blooming, and versatile, 
sought assiduously to alleviate the burdens of her 



'See Mass. Archives, vol. c< win, p, I in. 



32 A MEMOIR OF 

parents, and eventually succeeded in obtaining a 
situation as a governess in a noble family, with 
whom she made a tour in France, and learned the 
elegant language of that country. 

Friendless and alone, Miss Haswell went to Lon- 
don to seek employment as a teacher, and long and 
wearily she waited for a situation. From the regis- 
ter office, she often returned on foot, cold, hungry 
and penniless to her miserable home ; but hope and 
honesty, two prime elements of success, sustained 
her, and at length the long sought opportunity to 
teach, was found. 

In presenting herself to the lady who assisted 
her to a place, she touchingly narrated the history 
and condition of the Haswell family in these simple 
words : " My father, madam, is an officer in the 
army ; my mother dying while I was yet an infant, 
my father married a lady in America who brought 
him an ample fortune ; he took me over to America 
when only eight years old', "and we remained there 
in the utmost harmony till the unhappy breach 
between Great Britain and her colonies. My father 
refusing to join the Americans, his property was 
confiscated, and he returned with his family to 
England in a distressed situation. We have been 
in England seven years ; the family has been sickly 
and expensive; my poor father was involved in 



MBS. SUSANNA BOWSON. 33 

debt; I could not bear the idea of adding to 
his expenses ; I left my home, which is in the 
country, and came to town to a distant relation, in 
hopes by industry to obtain a living. This relation 
I have undesignedly offended, as also some who 
were nearer allied ; my efforts to live by industry 
have failed, and I find myself under the necessity 
of seeking for service." ! 

Miss Haswell remained as a governess in a 
noble family until declining health compelled her 
for a while to cease from intellectual labor; but 
the instructions to the young ladies of her charge 
were afterwards embodied in Mcntoria. 

On returning to London she became acquainted 
with Mr. William Rowson, a friend of her father, 
who was then engaged in business as a hardware 
merchant, and who acted also as a trumpeter in the 
Royal Horse Guards. 2 To this gentleman she was, 
by the persuasion of her friends, united in marriage 
in the year 1786 ; and in the same year she pub- 
lished by subscription, and under the patronage of 



'Inquisitor, vol. n, p. 139. 

'-.Mr. William Rowson was the son of an armorer to George the 
Third. In youth he was considered handsome ; hesang agreeably, 
and was of convivial habits. On leaving the Btage he was em- 
ployed at the custom house as marine clerk, tor more than a third 
of a century. 11<' married a second wife whose name was Han 
nali S. Bancroft. "There an- probably many persons." says Buck- 
ingham {Personal Memoirs, vol. i, p. s:!>, "who recollect, for no 



34 A MEMOIR OF 

her grace, the Duchess of Devonshire, 1 then one of 
the most beautiful and accomplished ladies of Eng- 
land, her first work, entitled Victoria? It is in two 
volumes; the characters are taken from real life, 
and the design of the work is " to improve the 
morals of the female sex, by impressing them with 
a just sense of the merits of filial piety." It con- 
sists of a series of familiar letters interspersed with 
poetry, vividly portraying the condition of English 
society, at that period, and the fatal effects of aber- 
ration from the path of virtue. The plot is not 
very cleverly arranged ; yet in some of the scenes we 
have an earnest of the success which the author was 
soon to achieve. 



one who heard can ever forget, the sublime and spirit stirring tones 
of this gentleman's trumpet, when he playedfbrthe Boston Handel 
and Haydn Society, the accompaniment to the magnificent air 
in the Messiah. ' The trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be 
raised.' One might almost see the graves opening and the dust 
quickening into life." 

1 Her grace, the Duchess of Devonshire, 1757-1806, eldest daughter 
of John, first Earl of Spencer, was celebrated alike for her love 
of art and for her personal charms. She published Passage of 
St. Gothard, Poems, etc., and was a liberal patroness of learned 
men. She married William, fifth Duke of Devonshire, in 1774. 
" I could light my pipe," said an Irish laborer, " at her eyes." 

2 The title of the work is : " Victoria, a Novel, in two volumes. 
The characters taken from real life, and calculated to improve the 
morals of the female sex, by impressing them with a just sense of 
the merits of filial piety. By Susannah Haswell. London : Printed 
by J. P. Cooke for the author at No. 38 Tavistock street, Covent 
Garden, etc. 17sii." 



MBS. SUSANNA BOWSON. 35 

" The touching pathos," says Mr. Knapp, " of 
those passages in which Victoria is described as 
losing her reason from the cruel treatment which 
she receives ; her plaintive sorrow when deserted, 
and the overpowering revulsion of feeling when 
restored to her first love, are worthy of the best 
hours of the gifted writer." 

The work is elegantly dedicated to her grace, 
the Duchess of Devonshire, and among the sub- 
scribers' names are those of Samuel Adams, Gen. 
John Burgoyne, Sir Charles Middleton, Mrs. Sarah 
Siddons, and other celebrities of that day. In the 
second volume the author introduces herself in the 
character of Lucinda Harlow, and frequently ad- 
verts to the generosity of her distinguished pa- 
troness. 

This grateful homage to her benefactress was not 
lost; for on the appearance of Victoria, the duchess 
introduced her protege to the Prince of Wales, 
known afterwards as George the IV, who was so 
well pleased with the young author and her book, 
as to bestow a pension on her father. 1 



'Writing to one of his children in 1799, he Bays: "I find the 
king in council of the 'J 1st of September, 1796, has caused fifty 
lants, <i\' whir 1 ! I am one, to be superannuated, all to rank as 
commanders in his majesty's oavy, which is a happy thing for us 
in our old age. that your dear mother had b salth to enjoy the 
additional income it (rives us." 



36 A MEMOIR OF 



CHAPTER VI. 

Seule an bord des rnisseanx je chante sur ma lyre, 
Ou le Dieu des gnerriers, on le Dieu des amans, 
Et ne changerois pas pour le pins vaste empire 
Ces donx amnsemens. — Madame Deshovlieres, tome I, p. 9. 

"Writing now, observes Mrs. Rowson, was her 
most pleasurable amusement; and so she gave the 
world in rapid succession Mary, or the Test of Honor, 
the substance of which was furnished by her book- 
seller ; a Trip to Parnassus ; or a Critique of Authors 
and Performers ; The Inquisitor, or the Invisible Ram- 
bler, after the manner, but without the grossness 
of the Sentimental Journey of Sterne; and Mentoria, 
or the Young Ladies' Friend, 1791. These works 
exhibit alike fertility of invention, simplicity of 
style, and purity of heart. The Inquisitor, published 
in London, 1788, 1 in three small volumes, 8vo, is 
dedicated to Lady Cockburne, who had shown 
herself a true and generous friend of the young 
author. It consists of a series of pictures of Lon- 
don society drawn by a person, who, by placing a 
charmed ring upon his finger renders himself 



1 The second American edition of the Inquisitor was published 
by Matthew Carey, Philadelphia, 1794. 



MRS. SUSANNA ROWSON. 37 

invisible to the parties whose conversation he 
reports, and whose actions, good or evil, he de- 
scribes. In this, as in her other works of fancy, 
Mrs. Rowson introduces under fictitious names, 
herself and something of her eventful history. 

The rambler at the printing office in volume I, 
is undoubtedly Miss Haswell with the manuscript 
of Victoria, at J. B. Cooke's in Tavistock street in 
1786. It is a fair specimen of the writer's manner 
through the book. 

" ' And can that young creature be an author? ' 
said I — she was standing at the door of the print- 
ing office waiting for admission. I had rambled 
out that morning in search of adventures — my 
ring was on, I entered the office with the young 
author. 

" ' I have brought you my manuscript, Mr. 
C — ke,' said she ; ' the story is founded on fact, 
and I hope will be so lucky as to please those who 
shall hereafter peruse it.' 

" ' Is it original, Miss ? ' 

'"Entirely so.' 

" ' Lord bless me, that was quite unnecessary.' 

" ' Why, sir, how could I think of offering to the 
public a story which has appeared in print before? ' 

" ' iSTothing more common, I assure you.' lie 
was a thin, pale looking man, dressed in a shabby 



38 A MEMOIR OF 

green coat. He never looked in her face the whole 
time he was speaking ; but standing half sideways 
towards her, fixed his eyes askance upon the 
ground. I never like a man that is ashamed to 
look one in the face ; it argues a consciousness of 
not having always acted with integrity. 

" ' Nothing can be more common, Miss,' con- 
tinued he, ' than for an author to get a quantity of 
old magazines, the older the better, and having 
picked and culled those stories best adapted to his 
purpose, he places them in a little regular order, 
writes a line here and there, and so offers them to 
the public as an entire new work. 

" ' See here, now, I have published this work on 
my own account; these few first pages are original ; 
but I assure you the scissors did the rest. I have 
entitled it the Moralist, and sell these two volumes 
at seven shillings and sixpence.' 

" ' I should rather call that compiling,' said the 
young author. 

" ' Why, so it is in fact, but I assure you there are 
few people who have genius sufficient to write a 
book ; or even if they had, would take the trouble 
to do it. A sentimental novel will hardly pay you 
for time and paper. A story full of intrigue, 
written with levity and tending to convey loose 
ideas would sell very well.' 



MBS. SUSANNA ROWSON. 39 

"' It is a subject unfit for a female pen,' said the 
young lady. 

" ' Why, you need not put your name to it.' 

" ' It is a subject unfit for auy pen,' retorted she, 
a deep vermilion dyeing her cheeks and fire flash- 
ing from her eyes ; but checking her rising passion, 
' I think,' continued she, with more composure, 
' the person who would write a book that might 
tend to corrupt the morals of youth and fill their 
docile minds with ideas pernicious and destructive 
of their happiness deserves a greater punishment 
than the robber who steals your purse, or the mur- 
derer that takes your life.' 

"Mr. C — ke stared, it was a vacant stare; he 
wondered, no doubt, how an author could study 
anything but her own emolument. I was pleased 
with her sentiments. If your writings are equal to 
what you have just uttered, said I, they will be 
worth perusing * * ' You mean 

to publish by subscription ? ' said Mr. C — ke. 
She replied in the affirmative. 

" ' And how do you mean to get subscribers ? ' 

" ' By showing my proposals and simply request- 
ing them to encourage my undertaking.' 

" ' Oh, God bless me!' he replied, still looking 
askance, for he never changed his position, or raised 
his eyes from the ground except it was to look ;it 



40 A MEMOIR OF 

his elbow and contemplate his threadbare sleeve ; 
' it will never do to go that way to work ; you 
must have a tale of distress to tell or you will never 
procure one subscriber.' 

" ' I am not very much distressed,' said she, ' and 
if I was, why should I blazon it to the world ? ' 

" ' It is no matter whether you are really distressed 
or not,' said C — ke, ' but you must tell a tale to 
excite pity or you will never gain a single shilling 
towards printing your books. I have sold eight 
hundred copies of the Moralist by these means. 
Nobody gives himself trouble to inquire whether 
my story be false or true. It excites pity for the 
moment ; they send me a subscription, my purpose 
is answered, and it is a question whether they ever 
think of me or my story again.' 

" She seemed tired of the conversation, so laying 
down her manuscript and desiring him to put it in 
hand immediately, she bade him good morning." 1 

Menioria was published in Dublin in 1791, and 
by Robert Campbell, Philadelphia, 1794. "My 
design in publishing these volumes," says Mrs. 
Rowson, " was an anxious desire to see all my dear 
countrywomen as truly amiable as they are univer- 
sally acknowledged beautiful; it was a wish to 



1 Inquisitor, vol. t, p. 52, et seq. 



MRS. NTS. I. V.V.I ROWSOJT. 41 

convince them that true happiness can never be 
met with in the temple of dissipation and folly." 

In the life, letters, and stories of Helen Askham, 
or Mentoria, whose father fell at Quebec in 1759, 
the author conveys her own experience as a go- 
verness, and her idea of female education most 
agreeably to the world. 

The dramatis persona are far too numerous ; yet 
the characters arc well sustained, and the style 
superior to that of her preceding works. The 
story of George Campbell, and the eastern tale of 
Urganda and Fatima, were introduced as models of 
fine writing into the Young Ladies' Guide, one of 
our earliest American school reading-books pub- 
lished by Thomas & Andrews, Boston, 1799, and 
it also undoubtedly suggested to Miss Hannah 
Webster, author of the Coquette, the idea of the 
Boarding School, published by the same firm the 
previous year. 

A single extract from the Essay on F< mah Educa- " 
lion, in the second volume, will show something of 
Mrs. Eowson's views upon this # subject, and furnish, ... 
perhaps, a useful hint to instructors at the present 
day : 

"It is much to be lamented that iV the present 
mode of educating females, the useful is entirely 
neglected for the more ornamental and superficial 



42 A MEMOIR OF 

accomplishments. There was a time, when, if the 
daughter of a respectable tradesman could read and 
write good English, handle her needle with neatness 
and celerity, and understand both the theory and 
practice of good housewifery, she was thought per- 
fectly accomplished, and so indeed she was; as 
those qualifications rendered her capable of under- 
taking the management of a family. 

" But in the present refined age, if an indus- 
trious tradesman can afford to give his daughter 
five hundred pounds, it is immediately settled by 
mama that miss must be genteelly educated. Ac- 
cordingly, she is, at an early age, sent to a board- 
ing school where she learns to jabber bad French 
and worse English ; the old fashioned sampler 
and useful plain work are neglected, and she 
is instructed how to work filagree, make wafer 
work, daub satin, and work ill proportioned figures 
in cloth, which in due time are curiously mounted, 
and hung around to ornament the parlor of the 
fond, but ill judging parents. Add to these ac- 
complishments the very fashionable one of jingling 
the keys of the harpsichord with great velocity, 
though perhaps out of time and out of tune. 

" Imagine miss just returned at the age of seven- 
teen, her mind puffed up with vanity, her head 
well stored with sensibility, and all the delicate 



MBS. SUSANNA ROWSON. 43 

feelings to be gleaned from a circulating library, 
the contents of which she has eagerly and indis- 
criminately perused, without any one taking pains 
to direct her judgment or correct her taste. We 
will suppose her lovely in her person, and attract- 
ive in her manners. She comes home and is idol- 
ized by her too partial mother, and spoken of by 
her father with pride and exultation ; but alas, she 
is too line a lady to pay any attention to the domes- 
tic concerns of the family. 

" In this foolish idea she is indulged by the 
mother, who thinks her dear girl's heart, sensibility 
and accomplishments will undoubtedly obtain her 
a match far superior to her present station, and she 
will have no occasion to be a good housewife. 
But these sanguine wishes are seldom, if ever, 
realized ; and we will suppose her married to a 
man just entered into a genteel and improving line 
of business : her friends think it is a good match ; 
her fortune is an acquisition to her husband, and 
they enter the career of life with all the hopes of 
permanent happiness, which all the hopes of peace 
and plenty can inspire. 

"But what a wretched figure does this elegant, 
accomplished girl make as mistress of a family! 
Her servants cheat and Laugh at her ; her acquaint- 
ances blame her, .and perhaps she even may incnr 



44 A MEMOIR OF 

the censure of her husband, for paying no more 
attention to matters which so nearly concern his 
interest. 

" Has she children ? She knows not how to make 
or mend their clothes ; she is always surrounded 
with difficulties from which she knows not how to 
extricate herself, and ashamed to confess her igno- 
rance to any one who could instruct her in the 
point she requires, she becomes selfish and dissatis- 
fied ; neglects even those accomplishments which 
she formerly strove so hard to attain ; becomes 
negligent in her dress, careless in her manners, and 
sinks into a very blank in creation. 

" Her husband, disappointed in not seeing that 
order and regularity at home which he had once 
fondty hoped, no longer finds any charms in her 
society, and seeks to forget his disappointment, 
either in the bottle, or at the gaming table, both 
equally destructive, and she sees inevitable ruin 
approaching, without the smallest power to ward 
off the blow. 

"Nor can the whole universe present us with 
an object more truly deserving our pity, than 
such a woman in a state of penury. She is at loss 
how to perform even the necessary duties of life ; 
she cannot exert herself to obtain even a single 
meal for herself and children ; she pines in obscu- 



MBS. srs.l.x.XA EOWSON. 45 

rity, regretting her useless education, and wishes 
that the sums so expended had been laid by to 
increase her fortune, and she herself had been only 
instructed in those tilings which would have tended 
ultimately to render her a useful and respectable 
member of society." l 

As an old Grecian educator once said of boys, 
Mrs. Rowson believed of girls, that they should 
learn while young just what they were to practice 
when grown up ; and although her course of in- 
struction might appear too limited for the present 
age, her idea that the light and' fanciful should 
give place to the solid and substantial, every intel- 
ligent parent will undoubtedly accept. 



l Mentoria, Dublin ed., p. 347. 



46 A MEMOIR OF 



CHAPTER VII. 



lo camera d'amor si novarneDte 
Ch'al duro fianco il <li mille sospiri 
Trarrei per forza. — Petrarcha, son. ci. 



In 1790, Mrs. Rowson, then in her twenty-eighth 
year, published in London, Charlotte Temple; or, a 
Tale of Truth, which at once engaged the attention 
of the public, and established her reputation as one 
of the ablest female writers in the department of 
literature she had chosen. It is a tale of senti- 
mental fiction founded on fact; the hero, Mon- 
traville, being in reality, it is said, Col. John 
Montresor, who, while in service in the British 
army in 1774, persuaded Miss Charlotte Stanley, 
a young lady of great personal beauty, and 
daughter of a clergyman, who, it is affirmed, was 
a younger son, or of the family of the Earl of 
Derb} r , one of England's proudest peers, to leave 
her home and embark with him and his regiment 
for New York, where he most cruelly abandoned 
her, as Mrs. Rowson faithfully and tragically re- 
lates. She died at the age of nineteen years, and 
was buried in the grave-yard of Trinity church, 
New York, where the inscription of her name upon 
a long, moss covered slab, within a few feet of the 



MBS. SUSANNA ROWSON. 47 

living tide that surges through Broadway, may still 
be read. 1 

" I had the recital," says Mrs. Eowson, in speak- 
ing of Charlotte Temple, in her introduction to the 
Trials of the Human Heart, from the lady whom I 
introduce under the name of Beauchamp, I was 
myself personally acquainted with Montraville; 
and from the most authentic sources, could now 
trace his history from the period of his marriage 
to within a very few late years ; a history which 
would tend to prove that retribution treads upon 
the heels of vice, and that though not always appa- 
rent, yet even in the midst of splendor and prospe- 
rity, conscience stings the guilty, and 

Puts rankles in the vessels of their peace. 

Charlotte Temple is not then a creation of fancy, but a 
faithful transcription of real life, in 1774, and hence 
it is a living book, and criticise it as we may, the 
people after all will read it, weep over it and enjoy 
it. It appeals to the tenderest sentiments of the 



'On her return to this country in !?!»!, Mrs. Rowson visited the 
grave of Charlotte Temple, ami the house in which she died. It is 
said that the monumental tablet in Trinity church yard originally 
bore tin- quarterings of the noble house of Derby, and that the 
name of Charlotte Temple has been substituted tor that of Char- 
lotte Stanley. The Old Tree House, a part of winch is still stand- 
ing on the corner of Pell and Doyers streets, New Fork, is Baid to 
be the place in which the tragical death of Charlotte occurred. 



48 A MEMOIR OF 

human heart, and sweeps across the chords of feel- 
ing as the evening breeze across the strings of the 
^Eolian harp. It exhibits passages of beautiful 
description, as the one commencing; ''It was a 
fine evening in the beginning of autumn;" of 
tender pathos, as the visit of Mr. Temple to Fleet 
prison, the sorrows of a mother, and the death of 
Charlotte ; of moral sublimity, as the agonizing 
struggles of a wounded conscience. The character 
of an intriguing, heartless teacher is well portrayed 
in that of Madam De la Rue, and that of a fiendish 
libertine in that of Belcour. As to Montraville, Ins 
course and character may perhaps be too favorably 
described; his punishment too light; but in him, 
we must recollect, the writer was dealing with an 
acquaintance, if not a distant relative of the Haswell 
family; nor had he, when the book was written, 
finished his career. 

The plot of the story is as simple and as natural as 
Boileau himself could desire; the denouement comes 
in just at the right time and place ; and the reader's 
interest is enchained, as by magic, to the very last 
syllable of the book. A question has been raised as 
to the moral tendency of this work. I will attempt 
to answer it only by observing that it is a simple 
record of events as they transpired, as truthful as 
Macaulay'a sketch of Charles the First, or of La- 



MBS. SUSANNA BOWSON 49 

martine's Columbus : and that whatever objection 
one might urge against it on the ground of immo- 
rality, might, with equal force, be brought against 
some of our very best works of history and bio- 
graphy. But let the decision be what it may, it 
seems quite certain that Mrs. Rowson wrote the story 
with the purest motive. She had seen something 
of the scandalous lives of the British land and naval 
officers of that period, and she determined to warn 
her fair countrywomen of their seductive arts. 
The bishop of London would have taken another 
course; but his voice would have failed to reach, 
as her cunning fingers did, the secret springs of the 
heart of the people. 

Charlotte Temple is a literary curiosity. Twenty- 
five thousand copies 1 were sold within a few years 
after its publication, and editions almost innumera- 
ble have appeared both in England and America. 
During the first quarter of the present century, this 



'"The in 1st popular of her works was Charlotte Temple, a Tale 
of Truth, over which thousands have 'sighed and wept, and sighed 
again,' which had the most extensive Bale of any work of 1 lie kind 
that had been published in this country, twenty five thousand 
copies having been sold in a few years." — Personal Memoirs of 
Joseph '/'. Buekingltam, vol. 1, p. 82. 

"The tears of many thousand readers have borne ample testi- 
mony to the power and pathos of this work." — Memoir of Mrs. 
Rotcson, by Samuel L. BLnapp, Ksij., prefixed to G/iarlotte's 
Daughtt r. 

7 



50 A MEMOIR OF 

little book distanced in popular favor, Horace Wal- 
pole's Castle of Otranto ; Henry Mackenzie's Man of 
Feeling; Ann Radcliffe's Romance of the Forest, pub- 
lished 1791 ; Regina Maria Roche's Children of the 
Abbey; Frances Burney's celebrated Evelina; and 
every other competitor in the field ; and it was not 
until the Great Wizard of the North began to en- 
chain our attention, that the pathetic history of Char- 
lotte Temple found a rival in the hearts of the people; 
"and even now it is more than probable that a greater 
number of persons could be found in America who 
have perused this book, than Waverley itself. 

It has stolen its way alike into the study of the 
divine and into the workshop of the mechanic ; into 
the parlor of the accomplished lady and the bed- 
chamber of her waiting maid ; into the log-hut on 
the extreme border of modern civilization and into 
the forecastle of the whale ship on the lonely ocean. 
It has been read by the grey-bearded professor 
after his " divine Plato ; " by the beardless clerk 
after balancing his accounts at night ; hj the tra- 
veler waiting for the next conveyance at the village 
inn ; by the school girl stealthfully in her seat at 
school. It has beguiled the woodman in his hut 
at night in the deep solitudes of the silent forest ; 
it has cheated the farmer's son of many an hour 
while poring over its fascinating pages, seated on 



MRS. SUSANNA ROWSON 51 

the broken spinning wheel in the old attic ; it has 
drawn tears from the miner's eye in the dim twi- 
light of his subterranean dwelling; it has unlocked 
the secret sympathies of the veteran soldier in his 
tent before the day of battle. 

A great warm loving heart guided the fingers 
which portrayed the picture, and that is power; 
and ply the rules of rhetoric as we may, the people 
feel the power and they acknowledge it. The 
common mind of the common people is after all 
the true arbiter of the merit of the works of genius. 
This sanctions Homer, Shakespeare, Le Sage, 
Cervantes, Bunyan, Burns, Goldsmith ; this sanc- 
tions the Aminta, the Gentle Shepherd, Paid et 
Virginie, Charlotte Temple ; this sanctions Guy Man- 
nering and the Pdot; this sanctions power! 

The plaintive song of the heroine in the twentieth 
chapter is in Mrs. Rowson's happiest vein : 

i. 

Thou glorious orb, supremely bright 

Just rising from the sea, 
To cheer all nature with thy light, 

What are thy beams to me ? 

II. 

lu vain thy glories bid me rise 

To hail the new born day; 
Alas ! my morning sacrifice 

Is still to weep and pray. 



52 A MEMOIR OF 

ill. 

For what are nature's charms combined 

To one whose weary breast 
Can neither peace nor comfort find, 

Nor friend whereon to rest? 

IV. 
Oh, never, never, whilst I live 

Can my heart's anguish cease ; 
Come friendly Death, thy mandate give 

And let me be at peace. 

In Charlotte's Daughter, or the Three Orphans; a 
Sequel to Charlotte Temple, a posthumous story by 
Mrs. Kowson published in 1828, she traces the life 
of Lucy Blakeney, 1 the orphan child of Charlotte 
Temple, through a variety of strange, but real scenes 
to the verge of a matrimonial alliance with Lieu- 
tenant Franklin, son of Col. Montraville, and her 
half brother, whose name, as well as her own, had 
been changed in infancy, and whose relationship 
was therefore to each other unknown. A minia- 
ture of the mother of Lucy prevents the fatal step. 
Lieutenant Franklin shows it to his wretched father 
as a picture having some resemblance to the lady of 
his choice. The colonel seizing it exclaims : hi It is, 
it is come, again to blast my vision in my last hour ! 



'Supposed to Lave been adopted by Lt. Col. Grice Blakeney, of 
the 14th Royal Dragoons. 






MRS. SUSANNA EOWSON 53 

The woman you would marry is my own daugh- 
ter ! Just Heaven ! oh that I could have been 
spared this. Go, my son, go to my private desk ; 
you will there find the record of your father's shame 
and your own fate! Nature was exhausted by 
the effort. He fell back on the bed supported by 
his trembling wife, and in a few moments the 
wretched Franklin, the once gay, gallant, happy 
Mod traville, was no more." ( Charlotte's Daughter, p. 
147.) The remaining days of Lucy Blakeney are 
spent in acts of charity and devotion. The style of 
Charlotte's Daughter is for the most part finished 
and beautiful; the story is well contrived, and the 
moral bearing healthful. A single brief sketch of 
a celebrated locality in England will serve as a 
specimen of the elegant passages in which the work 
abounds : 

"Edward's estate was in the neighborhood of 
the romantic vale of Keswick. The mansion lately 
inhabited by his uncle, was an old-fashioned, but 
comfortable house, situated on the southern declivity 
of the mountain Skiddaw, with a beautiful garden 
and extensive, but uneven grounds, laid out in a 
style entirely suited to the surrounding scenery. 
The view from the balcony in front of the house 
was one of singular beauty and sublimity. A long- 
valley stretched away to the south, disclosing in the 



54 A MEMOIR OF 

distance the still glassy surface of Derwent-water, 
and terminated by the bold and fantastic mountains 
of Borrowdale. On the east, the lofty steeps of 
Wallow-crag and Lodore seemed to pierce the very 
clouds ; whilst the towering heights of Newland 
bounded the view to the west, displaying the pic- 
turesque varieties of mountain foliage and rocks. 
The cottages and farm houses of his tenants were 
scattered about in such points of view as to afford 
a pleasing sort of embellishment to the landscape. 
Many of them were composed of rough, unhewn 
stone, and roofed with thick slates, and both the 
coverings and sides of the houses were not unfre- 
quently overgrown with lichens and mosses as well 
as surrounded with larches and sycamores." (P. 166.) 
This volume is preceded by an excellent memoir 
of the author from the practiced pen of Samuel L. 
Knapp, Esq., who, in speaking of her as a novel 
writer, very sensibly observes : " It is no trifling 
merit that she should have drawn her characters 
and incidents directly from life, when it was the 
prevailing fashion of writers of fiction to riot ex- 
clusively in the regions of fancy ; nor is it less to 
her praise that in an age of false sentiment and 
meretricious style, she should have relied for suc- 
cess ou the unpretending qualities of good sense, 
pure morality and unaffected piety." (Memoir,^. 17.) 



MRS. SUSANNA ROWSON 55 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Truth is? stranger than fiction. 

In 1792 another agreeable story from the fertile 
pen of Mrs. Rowson, appeared in London under 
the title of Rebecca : or, the Fille de Chambre. For 
this, as for most of her other works of fancy, the 
materials were drawn from scenes in her own 
checkered life, or from those in the lives of her own 
kinsmen and acquaintances. Her drama revolves 
around herself as the enlightening centre ; and she 
might almost say of every part as old ^Eneas did 
of the sack of Troy : 



quaeque ipse miserriina vidi, 

Et quorum pars niagni fui. — 2En. n, 5. 

In the introductory chapter to a revised edition 
of Rebecca, published some twenty years afterwards, 
1814, Mrs. Rowson speaks with tenderness of revi- 
siting the scenes of Hingham and Nantasket, where 
she had experienced so much kindness at the hands 
of the people in the days of her girlhood and 
affliction, and says: " The scenes in her [Rebecca's] 



56 A MEMOIR OF 

father's family, previous to her leaving it ; those at 
Lord Ossiter's ; the distress at sea [to which I have 
already adverted]; the subsequent shipwreck ; the 
burning of the Boston lighthouse; the death of 
the poor marine; the imprisonment of the family; 
the friendship experienced by them in the most 
distressed circumstances; the removal farther into 
the country, and exchange to Halifax, are events 
which really took place between the years 1769 
and 1788, though the persons here mentioned as 
sufferers are fictitious." 

The plot of Rebecca is not as well contrived as 
that of Charlotte Temple ; the unity not so well sus- 
tained ; nor are the characters, if we except that of 
Rebecca, 1 so ably drawn ; yet it will ever be inte- 
resting as a faithful picture of English and Ameri- 
can life in the days of the revolution, as a record of 
the trials and privations which the author herself 
experienced in early years, upon our guarded 
coast, and of the troubles no less serious which she 
met with while a governess at Lord Ossiter's. 



1 " It is hardly assuming too much to say," observes Mr. Knapp, 
in his memoir, " that Rebecca is one of the best drawn female cha- 
racters in modern fiction. Not only the stronger traits, but all the 
nicer shades, the innocent foibles and amiable weaknesses of wo- 
men, are given with a truth which discovers a careful study of 
female manners, and a thorough acquaintance with the human 
heart." 



VTBS. NTs. I. V.V.I ROWSON. 57 

The affair at the Boston lighthouse, and the death 
and burial of the murine, are thus graphically de- 
scribed : 

" The terrified inhabitants of Nantasket left the 
village and took refuge in the interior parts of the 
country, all but Mr. Abthorpe's [Haswell's] family, 
who still remained, though deserted by all their 
servants ; for the colonel had too high a regard 
for his royal master to join the cause of his ene- 
mies, and it was impossible to join the British 
troops without relinquishing all his property; he 
therefore hoped the storm would soon pass over; 
that some method would be proposed and accepted 
to conciliate matters, and in the meantime he wished 
to remain neutral. 

" It was a still morning about the latter end of 
Jul}', when Rebecca, being disturbed by some 
little rustling at her window, raised her head, and 
by the faint dawn that just glimmered from the 
east, discovered firmed men placed around the 
house. Alarmed, she started from her bed and 
awoke Miss Abthorpe ; they threw a few clothes 
over them and flew to the colonel's apartments. 
They were met by Mrs. Abthorpe who caught her 
daughter in her arms and pointed to the room 
where they usually slept, crying: 'Look, Sophia, 
your poor father.' 



58 A MEMOIR OF 

" Miss Abthorpe looked and beheld two soldiers 
with firelocks, who, placed at the door of the apart- 
ment, held her father prisoner. 

" ' Ah, my dear mother,' said she, ' who are these 
and what are they going to do ? Surely, they will 
not murder us !' 

" ' Don't frighten yourselves,' said one of the men, 
'we don't usually murder such pretty girls.' 

" ' But my father,' cried she eagerly, ' what do 
you intend to do with him ? ' 

" ' Set him at liberty again when our expedition 
is over.' 

" Rebecca now learnt that these were a part of 
the American army who had come to JS"antasket 
in whale boats with a design of dragging their 
boats across the beach before mentioned, and pro- 
ceeding to the lighthouse at the entrance of the 
harbor, intending to destroy it in order to mislead 
the expected relief that was coming to Boston, which 
was at the time besieged by the American army 
and in possession of the British. They had before 
made an unsuccessful attempt to demolish this 
lighthouse, and were now come resolved not to 
leave their work unfinished. Accordingly they 
proceeded as quietly as possible to the beach, almost 
carried their boats over, and arrived totally unex- 
pected at the little island on which the lighthouse 



MBS. si .s.|. v.v.l ROWSOF. 59 

stood and which was guarded by a party of marines. 
A smart skirmish ensued ; but the Americans were 
too numerous to be withstood by so small a party, 
the whole of which were either killed or taken pri- 
soners, and having completed their design returned 
to Nantasket victorious, though in the utmost conster- 
nation for fear of being pursued by boats from the 
Lively frigate and other ships that lay in the harbor. 

" Rebecca was standing at a window as they re- 
landed, the tears streaming down her pale face, and 
so entirely absorbed in terror that she was inatten- 
tive to the surrounding objects. From this state 
of torpor she was aroused by a deep groan, and 
raising her eyes saw two Americans entering the 
house, bearing between them a wounded marine 
whom they laid on the floor, and were preparing 
to depart when Mrs. Abthorpe rushed out of the 
adjoining apartment. 

" ' What are you doing? ' said she, ' you will not 
surely leave him here.' 

" ' He is in our way,' cried a watch ; ' if he don't 
die quickly, we will kill him.' 

" ' Oh, do not kill me ; ' cried the almost expiring 
soldier, < I am not fit to die.' 

" At this moment Major Tupper entered. Mrs. 
Abthorpe addressed him in a supplicating accent: 
' we can procure the poor soul no assistance,' said 



60 A MEMOIR OF 

she, ' he will perish for want of proper applica- 
tions to staunch the blood.' 

" ' My dear madam,' said the major, ' what can 
we do ? we fear pursuit and must retreat as fast as 
possible ; and should we take him with us, in our 
hurry and confusion, he would perhaps be precipi- 
tated into eternity. If we make a safe retreat, I 
will send for him to-morrow.' 

" He then departed, and Col. Abthorpe being now 
at liberty turned his thoughts towards the wounded 
soldier. 

" He had fainted ; a mattrass was laid on the floor, 
and as they all united in endeavoring to lift him 
upon it, the motion increased the anguish of his 
wounds and recalled his languid senses. 

" ' Oh spare me, do not kill me ! ' said he, looking 
around with a terrified aspect. 

" ' Be comforted,' said the colonel ; ' you are 
among friends who will do all in their power to 
save your life.' 

" ' God will reward you,' said he, faintly. They 
now examined the wound and found from its depth 
and situation that a few hours would terminate the 
existence of the poor suiferer; however they made 
long bandages of linen, and with pledgets dipped in 
spirits endeavored to staunch the bleeding, but in 
vain. 



Mils. SUSANNA ROWSON. 61 

" ' I am very faint,' said he. 

'.'Rebecca knelt and supported him in her arms, 
assisted by the weeping Sophia. 

" ' Can I live, think you, sir ? ' said he, looking in 
the colonel's face. 

" ' I fear not,' was the reply. 

" ' God's will be done,' said he, ' but I have a 
long account to settle, and but a short time to do it 
in. Dear good Christians pray with me — pray for 
me. Alas, it is dreadful to die and with the weight 
of murder on my conscience.' 

" Here he grew faint again and ceased to speak. 

" A cordial was administered — he revived. 

"'You see before you, my friends,' said he, 
' a most unhappy man, the victim of his own 
folly. My father is a clergyman in the north of 
England ; I am his only child, and have received 
from him an education suitable to the station in 
which he meant to have placed me, which was the 
church ; but alas ! I despised his precepts and 
joined myself to a set of the most dissolute com- 
panions, with whom I ran into every species of 
vice and debauchery. By repeated extravagance, 
I involved my poor father, who, no longer able to 
supply my exorbitant demai ids, remonstrated against 
my way of life ; but I was too much attached to 
vice to resolve to quit it, and in a fit of desperation, 



62 A MEMOIR OF 

having lost more money than I could pay, I enlisted 
in a regiment bound to this place. Oh, sir, I have 
reason to think my conduct shortened my dear 
mother's existence, and I have embittered the last 
hours of a father whom it was my duty to comfort 
and support. These are heavy clogs upon my 
departing soul, but he who witnesseth the sincerity 
of my repentance, I trust will compassionate and 
pardon me.' 

" ' No doubt of it,' cried Rebecca, whose heart 
was almost bursting as she listened to the expiring 
penitent. 

" He looked around, and fixing his eyes on 
Rebecca and Sophia, ' poor girls,' said he, ' you are 
but young ; take the advice of a dying sinner and 
treasure it in your memories. Obey your parents; 
never forsake them, and shun vicious company; 
for had I done this it would have been well for me 
in this evil day.' 

" Rebecca's susceptible heart smote her ; she hid 
her face with her handkerchief, and sighed deeply. 

" ' God forever bless you my friends,' said he, ' I 
am going ; a few pangs more and all will be over. 
Oh may he whose fatal aim took my life have it 
not remembered against him ; may the father of 
mercy forgive him as freely as I do.' 



MRS. SUSANNA ROM' SON. 63 

11 He then commenced the Lord's prayer, but ex- 
pired before he could finish it. 

" ' Peace be to his repentant spirit,' said the 
colonel, as he raised his weeping daughter from her 
knees. 

" ' His poor father,' said she, ' what would he feel 
did he know this! ' 

" ' He felt more,' replied the colonel, ' when the 
misguided youth forsook the paths of virtue, than 
he would, could he even behold him now.' 

" The heat at this season of the year is intense, 
and the colonel knew the body of the unhappy 
soldier must that day be consigned to the earth, 
yet how to make the grave, or how to convey the 
corpse to it when made, were difficulties which he 
could hardly think it possible to surmount; but sad 
necessity enforced the attempt. He fixed on a re- 
tired spot just by the side of his garden, and began 
the melancholy task. Rebecca and Sophia, with 
their delicate hands, attempted to assist, and by 
evening they had completed it. 

" The faint rays of the setting sun just tinged 
the summit of the highest hill ; the sky was serene, 
and scarce a breeze was heard to move the leaves 
or ruffle the smooth surface of the water. Awfully 
impressive was the silence that reigned through this 
once cheerful village. 



64 A MEMOIR OF 

" As the colonel sat pensively considering his situ- 
ation, and thinking how in the decentest manner 
possible he could render the last sad duties to the 
deceased, he saw a small fishing boat with one man 
in it, drawing near the shore. He ran hastily down, 
entreated him to land, and assist him in his mourn- 
ful office. 

" The body was carefully wrapped in a sheet, it 
was impossible to obtain a coffin. 

" ' "We have no clergyman,' said the colonel, 
'but the prayers of innocence shall consecrate his 
grave.' 

" He gave the prayer book to Sophia; she opened 
it, and with her mother and Rebecca, followed the 
body. She began the service, but her voice fal- 
tered, the tears burst forth, she sobbed, and could 
no longer articulate. The colonel took it from 
her; he was a man of undaunted courage in the 
day of battle, but even here his heart sank and his 
voice was tremulous; but he recalled his forti- 
tude, and finished the solemn rite in a becoming 
manner." 1 

" This was a day," says Mrs. Rowson, in a foot 
note to this passage, " never to be obliterated from 
the mind of the author, who partook of all its hor- 



1 Rebecca, p. 1G4. 



MBS. SUSANNA BOWSON. 65 

rors, though but just emerging from a state of 
childhood." 

The journey of the Haswell family from Hing- 
ham to Abington, about nine miles distant, in the 
autumn of 1777, and the hardships then experienced 
are thus vividly recounted : 

" ' And must we leave this place my dear father,' 
said Sophia, coming from a small adjoining apart- 
ment, whither she had retired to indulge the tears 
she was no longer able to restrain ; must we be 
separated from those friends whose generous atten- 
tions have lightened all our afflictions ? ' 

" ' We must, Sophia,' said her father, rather 
sternly, ' to-morrow morning.' 

" ' Ah ! me,' said the weeping girl, turning to 
Rebecca and resting her head on her shoulder. 

" ' Do not grieve thus, my dear Sophia,' said our 
heroine, ' for though separated from your friends, 
you will still live in their remembrance and they in 
yours.' 

" ' Yes,' cried Sophia, with a look of grateful 
rapture, ' ever while the vital tide nourishes my 
heart. Dear worthy inhabitants of Hingham, when 
I forget the friendship that alleviated my parents' 
sorrow, may that heart cease to beat.' 

" The next morning, just as the gray dawn began 
to enliven the east, Mr. Abthorpe's family were 



(J6 A. MEMOIR OF 

called to begin their journey. An open chaise, 
drawn by a miserable horse, was all the conveyance 
provided for Mrs. Abthorpe, Sophia and Eebecca ; 
the colonel himself was expected to walk. About 
nine o'clock in the morning they set out; but the 
road was so heavy, and the horse so old and lame, 
that though they had only a journey of fifteen miles 
to make, they had not completed it at four in the 
afternoon. The darkness of the night began to 
envelop every object, when the chaise stopped at 
a hut that could scarcely be called habitable. 
Rebecca and Sophia assisted Mrs. Abthorpe to 
alight. Gloomy as was the outward appearance of 
their destined habitation, the inside served only to 
increase their horror. It consisted of three rooms ; 
the windows had once been glazed, but were now, 
some parts open, and others mended with wood. 
One room indeed was boarded ; the others had only 
the ground for a floor. 

" There were two chimneys, large and dreary, in 
which no trace of fire appeared ; all was desolate 
and gloomy. 

" It was now quite dark and the colonel had not 
yet arrived. Rebecca and Sophia felt around the 
damp, solitary rooms for something on which Mrs. 
Abthorpe might sit clown ; for she was faint and 
weary from taking no refreshment during their 



MSB. srs.ltfjyA ROWSON. 67 

tedious journey, and having beeu exposed to the 
intense cold so many hours ; but their search was 
in vain ; no . seat could be found ; they took off 
their own cloaks and laid them on the floor ; on 
these she sank weak and exhausted, and in spite of 
her accustomed fortitude, suffering nature wrung 
from her a few complaints. Rebecca and Sophia 
knelt beside her and supported her ; the voice of 
comfort no longer issued from their lips; their 
sighs responsive answered hers ; their tears mingled 
as they fell ; but all remained silent. 

" They heard footsteps approach; the colonel's 
well known voice saluted their ears. 

" ' Dry your eyes, my dear girls,' said Mrs. Ab- 
thorpe, let us not increase his sorrows, whose every 
pang is doubled by our sufferings.' 

"The colonel entered — someone accompanied 
him, for they could hear more than one footstep. 

" ' We shall have a fire soon,' said the colonel, 
' it is a very cold eveuing.' 

" ' But I am well wrapped up and do not feel it,' 
said Mrs. Abthorpe. 

" His heart thanked her, though it refused to 
believe her assertion. 

" Just then a third person entered and threw down 
an armful of wood, when the person, who had 
accompanied the colonel, produced a tinder box, 



68 A MEMOIR OF 

and striking a light discovered to the astonished 
females the sons of two of their best friends. 1 

" ' Mr. Lane ! ' ' Mr. Barker,' 2 involuntarily burst 
from all their lips ; but the generous young men 
would not hear a word of praise or thanks. They 
soon cheered the solitary mansion with a comfort- 
able fire, and in the meantime a small cart arrived 
with two beds, a few chairs and some kitchen 
utensils. From a basket in this cart the young 
men produced a couple of fowls, some butter, 
bread, and two bottles of wine, so that in less than 
two hours from their first melancholy entrance, 
our distressed family were sitting in homely wise 
around an old wainscot table before a large fire 
partaking of a plentiful supper, while their hearts 
expanded with gratitude to that good Providence 
who had thus raised them up friends when least 
expected. 

" The next morning the young men exerted them- 
selves to repair the breaches in the windows and 
to stop the large crevices in 'the doors of the house. 
Having to the utmost of their power lessened the 
troubles of the family and rendered it tolerably 



1 Mr. David Andrews drove the team which carried Lieutenant 
Harwell's goods from Hingham to Abington. They passed 
through Weymouth, and the house in Abington to which they 
came stood about one half mile from the church. 

2 Gen. John Barker and Capt. Peter Lane, of Hingham. 



MRS. SUSANNA BO TYSON. 69 

comfortable, they departed, leaving behind them 
some meat, bread, butter, cheese, and a small parcel 
of tea and sugar; but as the last named articles 
were at that time extremely scarce they could not be 
so liberal as their expanded hearts led them to wish. 

" Oh ! with what rapture must the parents of such 
young men have received them after such a journey, 
to which they had been excited by motives of purest 
benevolence. 

" Blest spirits of philanthropy, the hearts of whom 
ere discord shook her baneful wings and shed her 
influence over your happy plains, felt not a pang 
but for another's woe, and whose first pleasure was 
to alleviate the sorrow of a suffering fellow creature ! 
May the arrows of affliction with which she has 
since wounded you, be drawn forth by the hand of 
sympathizing friendship ; and the anguish oblite- 
rated by the remembrance of your own good deeds! 

But to return. The habitation to which Colonel 
Abthorpe had been thus suddenly removed was 
situated on the skirts of an extensive wood. The 
face of the country was rocky and dreary, to which 
unpromising appearance the snow and ice not a 
little contributed. There was but one habitation 
within two miles of them and that was occupied by 
people, if possible more wretched than themselves. 



70 A MEMOIR OF 

In this dismal situation, with no amusement but 
what sprang from themselves, for they had not 
even the consolation of books, did the colonel and 
his family pass four wearisome months, during which 
time they had often no food but coarse Indian 
bread and potatoes, nor any firing but what Sophia 
and Rebecca assisted each other to bring in their 
delicate arms from the adjacent woods, for the 
colonel was a great part of that time confined to 
the house by the gout, and in their daily excursion 
to procure this necessary appendage to the support 
of life in so cold a climate, they had no covering to 
their feet, which often bled from the intenseness of 
the cold, or from incisions made by the rugged path 
over which they were obliged to pass." l 

The following easy and graceful song in Rebecca, 
seems worthy of transcription : 

i. 

Aurora, lovely, blooming, fair ! 

Unbarred tbe eastern skies ; 
While many a soft pelucid tear 

Ran trickling from her eyes. 

II. 
Onward she came with heartfelt glee, 

Leading the dancing hours ; 
For though she wept, she smiled to see 

Her tears refresh the flowers. 



1 Rebecca, p. 180, et seq. 



3fRS. SUSANNA BOW SON. 71 

ill. 
Phoebus, who long her charms admired 

With bright, refulgent ray 
Came forth, and as the maid retired 

He kissed her tears away. 

IV. 

So youth advances, mild, serene ; 

Our childish sorrows cease; 
While hope's gay sunshine gilds the scene, 

And all is joy and peace. 



72 A MEMOIR OF 



CHAPTER IX. 

May I come forward i Do I friends behold ? 

Mrs. Amelia Opie's Epilogue to the Curfew. 

While Mrs. Rowson was engaged in these de- 
lightful literary pursuits, having, as she says, few 
duties to perform, and many leisure hours, her 
husband, through the mismanagement of his Ame- 
rican partner, became a bankrupt. In her generous 
efforts to aid her father's family, she herself had 
exhausted her patrimonial estate, and although the 
sale of her works had already become quite exten- 
sive, she realized but limited returns for them. 

Now what was to be done? How could the 
ruined fortunes be retrieved ? How and where in- 
deed could bread and raiment for the day be found ? 
was the sharp question. Writing for the press 
in London would not give it ; teaching had been 
tried; but then no place for it could be com- 
manded ; there was no capital for recommencing 
trade. The hour was dark ; but Mrs. Rowson had 
already taken lessons in adversity, and her cou- 
rageous heart was not to be dismayed. What are 
the talents of the family ? Mr. Rowson was a 
musician, the master of a band ; his voice was 
good, and he could sing a merry song effectively. 



MBS. SUSANNA ROWSON 73 

He had a sister Charlotte, then about fourteen 
years old, whom Mrs. Rowson had adopted, and 
who had a sprightly manner and a pleasant voice ; 
Mrs. Rowson herself had a face beaming with ex- 
pression, an easy and polite manner, and retentive * 
memory. She read, or sang, or played the harpsi- 
chord, or guitar, or improvised a song or speech 
with equal skill and beauty. 

It was, therefore, finally resolved, though not 
without misgivings, to attempt to gain a livelihood 
on the stage. To this end they entered into an 

engagement with Mrs. , and made their first 

appearance on the boards at Edinburgh, in the 
winter of 1792-3 ; they also performed that season 
in several of the larger towns in England. Mrs. 
, however, proved to be a worthless cha- 



racter, failed to fulfill her contract with the Rowson 
family, and thus plunged them iuto straits and 
difficulties still more serious. 

But the laconic motto of the Haswell family is 
Taut que je pais, as much as I can; and in ac- 
cordance with it, an engagement was soon effected 
with Mr. Thomas Wignell, who had leased the 
Chestnut Street Theatre, Philadelphia, and who 
was spending the summer of 1793 in England, 

gathering his celebrated company for America. 
10 



£74 A MEMOIR OF 

On arriving with his troupe of performers at 
Philadelphia, in September, 1 of the same year, and 
finding that the yellow fever was driving the people 
from the city, he repaired immediately to Anna- 
polis, Md., where Mr. Rowson, his wife and sister 
Charlotte, first appeared upon the American boards. 
They were quite successful in light comedy, vaude- 
ville and opera; and returning to Philadelphia on 
the abatement of the fever, performed occasionally 
in that city and in Baltimore, the two following 
seasons. Although fulfilling the exhausting duties 
of an actress, Mrs. Rowson did not allow her pen 
to remain unemployed. She wrote at. this period 
the Slaves in Algiers, an opera, which drew forth a 
severe critique from Peter Porcupine, the cele- 
brated William Cobbett, and in 1794, the Volun- 
teers, a farce founded on the famous whiskey 
insurrection which occurred in western Pennsyl- 
vania that year; and still another play called the 
Female Patriot, 2 altered from one of Philip Massen- 



1 " In 1793, Mr. Wignell, who formerly belonged to the old 
company, arrived with a number of excellent performers, from 
England, who commenced their career the following winter, in the 
new theatre in Chestnut street, which had been recently built 
by a company, upon a tontine principle." — The Picture of Phila- 
delphia, by James Mease, M.D., p. 329. 

2 Performed at the new theatre, Philadelphia, 1795. See James- 
Ree's Dramatic Author* of America, p. 114. 

Mrs. Rowson performed before Washington, who attended the 



MRS. SUSANNA ROWSON. 75 

ger's, together with several odes, epilogues and 
songs, which appeared in the periodicals of that 
day. 

One of her pieces written at this time was set to 
music by Mr. Carr, and extensively sung. It was 
published by S. G. Willig, Philadelphia. 1 

In Vain is the Verdure of Spring. 
i. 

Restrained from the sight of my dear, 

No object with pleasure I see; 
Though thousands around me appear, 

The world's but a desert to me. 

II. 
In vain is the verdure of spring, 

The trees look so blooming and gay ; 
The birds as they whistle and sing 

Delight not when "William's away. 

in. 

Reclined by a soft murmuring stream, 

I weeping disburthen my care ; 
I tell to the rocks my sad theme 

Whose echo soothes not my despair. 



theatre five or six. times during the season, 1794. His favorite 
plays were the School for Scandal, Every ont has his Fault, the 
Poor Soldier, ami Wignell's Darby. — Lossing's Recollections of 
Washington. 

'The music by Mr. Can-: Printed by Qt. Willig, Philadelphia, 
before L799 



76 A MEMOIR OF 

IV. 

Ye streams that soft murmuring flow, 

Convey to my love every tear ; 
Ye rocks that resound with my woe, 

Repeat my complaints in his ear. 

While residing in Baltimore in 1795, she wrote 
a spirited poetical address to the army of the 
United States, entitled the Standard of Liberty, 
which was admirably spoken on the stage by the 
celebrated Mrs. Whitlock, in presence of the mili- 
tary companies of the city. She published, also, 
this year at Philadelphia, her largest and most 
elaborate, though perhaps least popular work, which 
she named the Trials of the Human Heart} It was 
printed in four volumes, by subscription, and dedi- 
cated to Mrs. Bingham, April 19, 1795. Among 
the names of the subscribers are those of Franklin, 
Mrs. Washington, Matthew Carey, Gen. Jeremiah 



1 Trials of the Human Heart, a novel in four volumes, by Mrs. 
Rowson, of the new theatre, Philadelphia, author of Charlotte, 
Mile de Chamhre, Inquisitor, etc., etc. : 

If there's a power above us — 

And that there is all nature cries aloud 
Through all her works, he must delight in virtue. 
The soul secured in its existence, smiles 
At the drawn dagger, and defies its point. 

Philadelphia : Printed for the author, by Wrigley & Berriman, 
No. 149 Chestnut street, sold by Messrs. Carey, Rice, Campbell, 
Ormrod, Young, and the author, corner of Seventh and Chestnut 
streets, 1795. 



MRS. SUSANNA ROWSON. 77 

Wadsworth, and of other well known characters. 
The work consists for the most part of a series of 
letters written in a discursive, often sentimental 
style, from Meriel Howard to Celia Shelburne, in 
which the author leads her heroine through many 
trying and perplexing scenes, as a daughter, wife 
and mother, " tempering the weakness of humanity 
with the patience and fortitude of a Christian." 
The scene is laid mostly in London and vicinity, 
and the time of the action runs from April 20, 1775, 
to September 29, 1791. The sorrows of Meriel 
arise chiefly from infidelity, scandal and penury ; 
trials which the author herself experienced. The 
dramatis personam are by far too numerous ; the plot 
is carelessly constructed, and the general drift of 
thought and sentiment, is similar to that of the 
leading female novelists of that period among whom 
Mrs. Rowson mentions [vol. IV, 74], Mrs. Frances 
Burne}', Mrs. Bennet, and Misses Sophia and Harriet 
Lee, as her especial favorites. The moral bearing 
of the work, however, is healthful, as the following 
brief extract in tone and keeping with the author's 
main design may serve to indicate. 

a I will have my hours of peace and retirement : 
for in my opinion, the life that is spent in a con- 
tinued round of insipid pleasures, is not only 
entirely useless to society, but in some measure 



78 A MEMOIR OF 

guilty ; as we can have no time for the performance 
of those duties which are incumbent on every pro- 
fessor of Christianity; nor do I think, as many 
do, that people of a certain rank in life may pass 
their time in any way most agreeably to them- 
selves, and that they are not accountable for it to 
any one. We certainly are answerable to One 
who will demand an account of our stewardship at 
a time when no evasion whatever will serve our 
turn, and the more elevated our station, the more 
careful we should be to set examples worthy the 
imitation of our inferiors : examples that may inspire 
all who know us with the love of virtue." 1 

We cannot forbear transcribing from this work 
a sacred lyric which does honor alike to the author's 
head and heart. It is thus gracefully introduced : 

" The moon shone through the windows full upon 
an organ which was placed there for me to enter- 
tain myself with, and as I am fond of solemn music, 
the stillness of the evening and the serenity of every 
surrounding object inspired me with a wish to 
touch the instrument. I therefore sat down, and fol- 
lowing the impulse of my soul, began the following : 

J Vol. in, p. 54. 



MES. SUSANNA BOWSON. 79 



Hymn to Gratitude. 

i. 
Where'er I turn my raptured eyes, 
'New scenes of beauty round me rise, 

My heart exulting glows ; 
And while I view the wondrous whole, 
To the Creative Power my soul, 
With gratitude o'erflows. 

II. 
Yon burning orbs, that round the pole, 
In solemn, grand succession roll, 

Declare their Maker's power; 
Then while such glories deck the sky, 
Can such a weak, frail worm as I 

But worship and adore. 

in. 
Father of all, thou dost bestow 
On us poor reptiles here below, 

Each good we're taught to prize ; 
And tho' sometimes we feel thy frown, 
The truly grateful heart must own 

Thy judgments just and wise. 

IV. 

Hail, Gratitude, celestial guest, 
Come make thy mansion in my breast, 

Thou spark of love divine ; 
Inspired by Thee, though troubles rise, 
My soul shall mount toward the skies, 

And Heaven itself be mine." 

[ Trials <>/ 1 ft, Human Heart, vol. ni,p. 107.] 






80 A MEMOIR OF 

The stanzas to Hope, are as touching as they are 
beautiful : 

i. 

Oh ! cease, vain, busy Fancy, cease 

To dwell on scenes long past, 
When every hour was winged with peace ; 

With joy too great to last. 
But come, sweet Hope, celestial power, 

Thy healing comfort bring ; 
Oh, soothe my mind, and let me soar 

Upon thine airy wing. 

II. 
When through the vaulted aisle I roam, 

And breathe the sigh sincere ; 
Or o'er my mother's hallowed tomb 

Drop the sad, filial tear : 
' Tis thou can'st cheer the solemn hour ; 

Can'st peace and comfort bring ; 
Elate my thoughts, and bid them soar 

Upon thine airy wing : 



Methinks I hear thee, whispering say; 

" Mortal thy tears give o'er, 
Thy mother, thou, in realms of day, 

Shalt meet to part no more." 
Soothed by thy words, benignant power, 

My soul exulting springs, 
And toward the sky, with rapture soars 

Upon thine airy wings. 

[ Trials of the Human Heart, p. 47.] 



MBS. SUSANNA BOWSON. «1 

In her introduction to the Trials of the Human 
Heart, Mrs. Rowson defends herself and writings 
against the unjust and gross aspersions of William 
Cobbett, who had accused her of writing in an 
improper style in her novel of the Fille de Chambre ; 
and of expressing sentiments foreign to her heart — 
sentiments favorable to America in her comedy of 
Slaves of Algiers. After affirming that " both asser- 
tions are equally false and scandalous," she pro- 
ceeds to give an interesting resume of the events 
of her early life as a kind of explanation of the 
political opinions which she entertained. 

" Though many a leisure hour," she writes, " has 
been amused and many a sorrowful one beguiled 
whilst, giving fancy the reins, I have applied my- 
self to my pen, it has ever been my pride that I 
never yet wrote a line that might tend to mislead 
the untutored judgment, or corrupt the inexpe- 
rienced heart, and heaven forbid that I should 
suffer aught to escape me that might call a blush 
to the cheek of innocence or deserve a glance 
of displeasure from the eye of the most rigid 
moralist. 

" As to my opinion of the political concerns of 

America, or my wishes in regard to her welfare, 

I cannot better explain them than by giving a 

slight sketch of my private history, with which I 
11 



82 A MEMOIR OF 

rather imagine the creature alluded to, is entirely 
unacquainted. 

"It was my fate, at a period when memory can 
scarcely retain the smallest trace of the occurrence, 
to accompany my father, Mr. William Haswell, 
who is lieutenant in the British navy, to Boston in 
New England, where he had married a second wife, 
my mother having lost her life in giving me exist- 
ence. Blest with a genteel competency, and placed 
by his rank and education in that sphere of life, 
where the polite and friendly attention of the most 
respectable characters courted our acceptance and 
enjoying a constant intercourse with the families 
of the officers of the British army and navy, then 
stationary there, eight years of my life glided 
almost imperceptibly away. 

" At that time the dissensions between England 
and America increased to an alarming degree. 
My father bore the king's commission, he had taken 
the oath of allegiance ; certain I am that no one 
who considers the nature of an oath voluntarily 
taken, no one who reflects that previous to this 
period, he had served thirty years under the British 
government will blame him for a strict adherence 
to principles which were interwoven as it were into 
his existence. Tie did adhere to them, the attend- 



MBS. MX I A A. I ROWSON. 83 

ant consequences may readily be supposed ; his 
person was confined, his property confiscated. 

" Then it was that the benevolence and philanthropy 
which so eminently distinguish the sons and daugh- 
ters of Columbia, made an indelible impression on 
my heart; an impression which neither time nor 
chance can obliterate; for while their political 
principles obliged thern to afflict, the humanity, the 
Christian like benevolence of their souls, incited 
them to wipe the tears of sorrow from the eyes of 
my parents, to mitigate their sufferings and render 
those afflictions in some measure supportable. 

" Having been detained as a prisoner two years 
and a half, part of which was spent in Hingham 
and part in Abington, an exchange of prisoners 
taking place between the British and Americans, 
my father and his family were sent by cartel to 
Halifax, from whence we embarked for England. 
I will not attempt to describe the sorrow I expe- 
rienced, in being thus separated from the com- 
panions of my early years ; every wish of my heart 
was for the welfare and prosperity of a country, 
which contained such dear, such valuable friend-, 
and the only comfort of which my mind was capa- 
ble was indulging in the delightful hope of being 
at some future period permitted again to revisit a 
land so beloved, companions so regretted. 



84 A MEMOIR OF 

" Too young at that period to have formed any 
political opinion of my own, I may naturally be 
supposed to have adopted those of my father; but 
the truth is, that equally attached to either country, 
the unhappy dissensions affected me in the same 
manner as a person may be imagined to feel, who, 
having a tender lover and an affectionate brother 
who are equally dear to her heart and by whom she 
is equally beloved, sees them engaged in a quarrel 
with, and fighting against, each other, when let 
whatsoever party conquer, she cannot be supposed 
to be insensible to the fate of the vanquished. 

During a period of twelve years a variety of painful 
circumstances unnecessary here to recount, contri- 
buted to deprive me of a decent independence 
inherited from my paternal grandfather, and at 
length to bring me back to America, in a very 
different situation, I must confess, from that in 
which I left it; but with a heart still glowing with 
the same affectionate sensations, and exulting in its 
evident improvement: the arts are encouraged, 
manufactures increase, and this happy land bids 
fair to be in the course of a few years the most 
flourishing nation in the universe. 

" Is it then wonderful, that accustomed from the 
days of childhood, to think of America and its 
inhabitants with affection, linked to them by many 



MBS. SUSANNA ROWSON. 85 

near connections and sincerely attached to them 
from principles of gratitude that I should offer the 
most ardent prayers for a continuation of their 
prosperity, or that feeling the benign influence of 
the blessings of peace and liberty, here so eminently 
enjo} T ed, I should wish that influence extended 
throughout every nation under heaven." 

In a paper entitled a Kick for a Bite, etc., pub- 
lished in Philadelphia, 1796, Peter Porcupine 
again rails at Mrs. Powson's sudden conversion to 
republicanism and says : 

" A liquorish page from Fille de Chambre serves 
me by way of a philtre ; the Inquisitor is my opium, 
and I have ever found the Slaves in Algiers a most 
excellent emetic." It does not appear that Mrs. 
Powson took any farther notice of her ungenerous 
fellow countryman. Her life was her reply. 



86 A MEMOIR OF 



CHAPTER X. 



Je vais oil le vent me mene. 

Sans me plaindre, on m'eft'rayer. — A. V. Arnault. 



Entering into an engagement with J. B. William- 
son, manager of the Federal street theatre, 1 Boston, 
the Rowson family came to this town in 1796, and 
made their debut in the comic opera of the Farmer 
by John O'Keefe, Esq., on the night of the 19th of 
September. In speaking of the performance, the 
Centinel of the 21st instant says : " Mr. Rowson in 
the song of the Farmer united a good voice to a 
happy execution, and Mrs. Rowson's Betty Blackberry 
received many marks of public pleasure." 

By reference to the play bills of that day, it 
appears that Mrs. Rowson performed the part of 
Lady Sneerwell in Sheridan's School for Scandal, 
on the 21st of September; and a part in the Fatal 
Marriage, on the 10th of October. She appeared as 
Margery in the Spoiled Child, by Hoare, November 



1 This theatre was opened under the management of Charles S. 
Powell, February 3, 1794, with the play of Gustavas Vasa.hy 
Henry Brooke, Esq. It went into the hands of Colonel J. Tyler 
for a while and was then leased to J. B. Williamson, who failed in 
1797. The building was destroyed by fire, February 2, 1798.— 
Snow's History of Boston, p. 334. 



MRS. 8U8AN1TA UOWSON. 87 

21st; and as Mrs. Druggett, in Mr. Murphy's Three 
Weeks after Marriage, on the 25th of December. 

On the evening of January 11, 1797, she per- 
sonated Catalina, in the comic opera of the Castle 
of Andalusia; on the sixteenth of the same month, 
Lady Autumn in the Wedding Day; on February 
1st, Mrs. Cheshire, in the Agreeable Surprise; and 
on February 13, Dame Quickly, in the Merry Wives 
of Windsor. On the 27th of March, she took the 
part of Mysis, in Kane O'Hara's operetta of Midas ; 
and on the 31st, that of Lady Torrendal. On the 
3d of April, she appeared as Marcellina, in the 
Follies of the Day, her husband taking the part of 
Bounce; and on the 12th of the same month, Mr. 
and Mrs. Rowson enjoyed a benefit, when a new 
comedy in three acts, entitled Americans in 'England, 
or Lessons for Daughters, written by the author of 
Charlotte Temple, etc., etc., was for the first time 
presented. Mr. Rowson appeared as Snap; Mrs. 
Rowson as Mrs. Ormsby and Jemima AViuthrop, 
and Miss Charlotte Rowson, 1 as Betty: Mrs. Row- 



1 ( Jharlotte Rowson was born in or near London, about ITU*: was 
early left an orphan, and came to this country in Wignell's com- 
pany, with her In-other. She was for a while upon the stage, and 
played in light characters, and san". - with fine effect, such songs as 
Auld Robin Gray, etc., which were then popular. She married 
before she was eighteen years old, Mr. William P. Johnston, then 
a bookkeeper in the officeof David Claypole, of Philadelphia, and 



88 -4 MEMOIR OF 

son pronounced the epilogue. This play was again 
performed on the 19th of April, and also for the 
benefit of the author, on the 26th, when it was 
received with great applause by the audience. 
The Chronicle speaks enthusiastically of the fine 
acting of Mrs. Rowson. This play is now extremely 
rare ; the book hunters having offered as much as 
fifty dollars for a single copy. On the 3d of May, 
Mrs. Rowson's play of the Slaves in Algiers was 
performed; and on the 17th of this month her sea- 
son in Boston closed with the popular play of the 
Spoiled Child, in which, as Mrs. Pickle, she made 
without the least regret, her final exit from the 
stage. " As an actress," says the Boston Gazelle 
[1824], " she was distinguished for correct deport- 
ment, clearness of enunciation, and good reading." 
She entered on the profession, not from inclination, 



publisher of the first daily paper issued in this country. Their 
son, David Claypole Johnston, born in March, 1797, married Miss 
Sarah Murphy, of Boston, in 1830, by whom he had eight children. 
He was eminent as an artist and caricaturist, and died November 
8, 1865. His son, Thomas Murphy Johnston, has inherited his 
father's genius. Of the daughters, Miss Susan R. Johnston, in 
connection with Miss Mills, continued Mrs. Rowson's school ; an- 
other married Mr. John T. Tait, of Philadelphia. Mrs. Win. P. 
[Rowson] Johnston died in July, 1855, at the age of seventy-six 
years. She was of medium size ; and her eyes and Lair were 
dark, and her temper genial. She was very much attached to Mrs. 
Rowson, and regarded her more as a mother than a sister. — See 
Genealogical Register, April, 18(56, p. 170. 



MBS. SUSANNA BOWSOW. 89 

but necessity; and though she met with a fair 
measure of success in it, the failure of Mr. William- 
son, together with the silent monitor within her 
breast, persuaded her to relinquish it, and seek for 
an employment more congenial with her feelings, 
and more beneficial to society. 



12 



90 -4 MEMOIR OF 



CHAPTER XI. 

Delightful task 1 to rear the tender thought, 
To teach the young idea how to shoot ; 
To pour the fresh instruction o'er the mind, 
To breathe the enlivening spirit, and to fix 
The generous purpose in the glowing breast. 

Thompson? s Spring, p. 53. 

On leaving the stage in the spring of 1797, Mrs. 
Rowson, under the patronage of Mrs. Samuel 
Smith, began a school in Federal street, and with 
but a single pupil, Mrs. Smith's adopted daughter, 
continued it for one whole term. She was known 
in Boston only as a novel writer, as an actress — 
how could children be confided to her care ? 

But the light cannot be hid ; her motto was tant 
queje puis, and persevering steadily, she came before 
the close of the scholastic year to number one hun- 
dred pupils on her daily roll ; and applications were 
received for more than she could possibly accom- 
modate. Her head, and heart and hand were given 
to her school ; and yet redeeming rigidly her time, 
she suffered not the ink to dry upon her graceful 
pen. In 1798, the birthday of "Washington, who 
was then expected to assume again the command 
of our armies, was celebrated with great eclat 
throughout the country. The patriotic address 



MBS. 8U8ANNA BOWSON. 91 

before the troops at Baltimore had given Mrs. 
Rowson some renown as a poet, and she was in- 
vited to prepare a song for the great festival in 
Boston. She wrote the following, to the tune of 
Anacreon in Heaven, since called the Star Spangled 
Banner, which was sung and rapturously applauded 
by the audience : 

i. 
When rising from ocean Columbia appeared, 

Minerva to Jove, humbly kneeling, requested 
That she, as its patroness, might be revered, 

And the power to protect it in her be invested. 
Jove nodded assent, pleasure glowed in her breast 

As rising, the goddess her will thus expressed : 
The sons of Columbia forever shall be 

From oppression secure, and from anarchy free. 

II. 
Rapture flashed through the spheres as the mandate went forth 

When Mars and Apollo together uniting, 
Cried, " Sister, thy sons shall be famed for their work 

Their wisdom in peace and their valor in fighting; 
Besides from among them a Chief shall arise 

As a soldier or statesman, undaunted and wise, 
Who would shed his best blood, that Columbia might be 

From oppression secure, and from anarchy free." 



Jove, pleased with the prospect, majestic arose 

And said : " By ourself they shall not be neglected ; 

But ever secure, though surrounded by toes, 
By Washington bravely upheld and protected, 



92 A MEMOIR OX 

And while peace and plenty preside o'er the plains, 
While memory exists or while gratitude reigns, 

His name ever loved and remembered shall be, 

While Columbians remain Independent and Free." l 



At this time Reuben and Rachel, or Tales of Old 
Times, was passing through the press. It is in two 
volumes, 12mo, and was written with the design of 
awakening a deeper interest in the study of history 
which the author had pursued with great delight, 
and of showing that not only evil itself, but the 
very appearance of evil is to be avoided. 

While this story presents many passages of vivid 
description; and several scenes of touching pathos, 
we nevertheless can claim but little merit for it as 
a work of art. The writer made her plot sub- 
servient to her desire of teaching history, and hence 
it ranges over a period of quite two centuries. 
The hero and heroine, Reuben and Rachel Dudley, 
whose grandfather, William Dudley, had been taken 
captive by the Indians in King Philip's war, and had 
married Oberca, the daughter of a chieftain, are 
not introduced to the attention of the reader until 
the chapter closing the first volume. Through 
many trying scenes and temptations both in Eng- 
land and America, they are then conducted, still 



1 Miscellaneous Poems, p. 178. 



MR& SU8ANNA ROWSON. 93 

maintaining the honor of the name of Dudley, until 
they finally come to settle in peace on the estate of 
their beloved father at Mount Pleasant, Pennsyl- 
vania. Mrs. Rowsou has breathed so much of her 
own generous emotion into this work, that in spite 
of its want of unity and the improbable incidents 
with which its pages abound, the interest of the 
reader is enchained as by the spell of an enchanter, 
to the last. 1 

The following extract in which the twin children 
make inquiries of their Aunt Rachel respecting 
a coronet of feathers which they had accidentally 
found, displays alike the author's graceful style and 
happy manner of imparting knowledge to the young. 

"'It was my brother's,' said she in a mournful 
tone, taking it from the child's head and laying it 
on her knee; 'I have seen him wear it often.' 

"'He was a great man in America, aunt?' said 
Reuben. 

" ' He was more than great, my love, he was good.' 

" ' Pray, aunt,' said Rachel, ' do you remember 
my grandmother ? ' 



'"She wrote a novel called Revhen and Rachel, which] re 
member to have read and admired when I was an apprentice." — 
Pi rsonal M< moirs by Jos ph T. Bucking/iam, toI. i, p. 84. 

This work is now quite rare A copy of it. however, is pre- 
served in the Library of the American Antiquarian Society, Wor 
cester, .Mass. Another copy lies before me. 



94 A MEMOIR OF 

" ' Perfectly.' 

" ' Was she an Indian ? ' 

" ' Yes.' 

" ' What, quite a wild savage ? ' 

" ' Ko, my dear; she was what is in general 
erroneously termed so ; but her heart was as gentle, 
as compassionate, as full of virtue and piety as that 
of the most enlightened Christian.' 

" ' Was she black, aunt? ' 

" ' ISTo, dark brown, or rather copper. But the 
complexion of her face was like that of her mind. 
Its charms and imperfections were discoverable at 
one glance, and it was ever beautiful because 
invariable.' 

" ' But was my grandfather a sachem ? ' 

" ' He was.' 

" ' What is a sachem ?' 

'"It is a title given to a chief amongst the 
Indians, and is the same as a governor with us.' 

" ' How came he to be a chief of the savages, aunt ? ' 

" ' I will tell you,' replied Aunt Rachel. 

"It was a subject on which she delighted to 
expatiate. She stirred up the fire, folded up her 
work, and placing the attentive children on each 
side of her began. But my readers already know 
the whole story and repetitions are ever tedious. 
Aunt Rachel was minute in her recital. At the 



MBS SUSANNA ROWSON. 95 

account of her capture Rachel wept ; but Reuben 
started from his seat, his countenance glowing with 
resentment, and cried, ' I wish I had been there.' 

" ' And what would you have done, my love,' said 
his aunt. 

" ' Have rescued you or died,' replied our hero. 

" ' Charming, undaunted spirit,' exclaimed his 
aunt, and then continued her narrative. 

" When she recounted the death of Otooganoo, and 
the solemn manner in which he recommended their 
father, (then an infant) to the care of the chiefs : 
' Good old man,' said Rachel in the most expres- 
sive accents of affection, ' what pity he should die.' 

" ' Then my father is a sachem,' and the seeds of 
ambition which nature had implanted, but which 
till that moment had lain dormant in his bosom, 
started into life. At the account of their grand- 
father's death, the children both sobbed audibly. 

" ' I will, I am determined, I will go to America,' 
said Reuben, first suppressing his emotions. 

"'What, without me, brother,' asked Rachel in 
a mournful voice. 

"'No, no! 'he replied; 'not without you, but 
when I am a man we will go together ; we will find 
out our grandfather's government and discover our- 
selves to his people; I dare say they would be glad 
to see us since thev loved him so well.' 



96 A MEMOIR OF 

" ' But what should we go there for, brother ? I 
am sure we are very happy here ; and papa would 
not be willing to part with us.' 

" ' Well, then I will go and leave you with them, 
and when I have settled myself in my government, 
I will send for you all; oh what a fine house I will 
have, and then what a number of servants, and 
horses and coaches.' 

"Aunt Rachel smiled to hear how eagerly the 
fancy of youth catches at the hope of future great- 
ness, and how readily they connect the ideas of 
grandeur, affluence and numerous attendants, to 
the possession of a title. She gazed for a moment 
with pleasure on his intelligent countenance which 
the emotions of his little swelling heart had lighted 
up with uncommon animation, and paused, unwill- 
ing to throw a dampness on those delightful sensa- 
tions he appeared to enjoy. At length, 

" ' What would you say,' cried she, ' if I were to 
tell you that your grandfather had no attendants 
except a few warriors, who, from voluntary attach- 
ment to his person, followed to protect him from 
danger; that he had neither horse nor carriage ; 
that his palace was composed chiefly of the bark of 
trees ; that his bed was the skins of wild beasts, and 
his seat of state the trunk of an old tree hewn into 
something resembling a chair, covered with beaver 



MBS SZTSAj v.V.l EOWSON. 97 

and other skins, and its ornaments the teeth of 
tigers, polished shells and fish bones ? ' 

'"But he was good,' said Rachel, 'and conse- 
quently happy.' 

" ' And he was brave and wise,' said Reuben 
exultingly, ' and every body loved him.' 

" ' Sweet children,' said Aunt Rachel, ' those are 
consequences which ought ever to follow goodness, 
bravery and wisdom. But, alas ! they are not 
always certain.' 

" ' What, then, are not all good persons happy ? ' 

" ' Not always in their outward circumstances ; 
but they enjoy internal peace.' 

" ' And are not the brave and the wise always 
esteemed ? ' 

" ' By those who have sense and discernment, 
they in general are ; but unfortunately, great and 
shining qualifications, either of mind or person, 
excite, in general, more envy than love.' 

" ' What is envy, aunt ? ' 

" ' A passion, my dear Rachel, to which I hope 
you will ever remain a stranger.' With this wisli 
the good old lady kissed the children and dismissed 
them to bed." 1 



1 U, nhiii and Rachel, vol. n, p. l?(i. 
18 



98 A MEMOIR OF 



CHAPTER XI. 

. Vpt to teach. — St. Paul. 

In the spring of 1799, 1 Mrs. Rowson introduced 
a piano-forte into her school room, an event which 
constitutes an era in the progress of music in Bos- 
ton, where the instrument was then almost entirely 
unknown. Mr. Laumont was employed as the 
teacher, and young ladies from different parts of 
the country now began to avail themselves of this 
opportunity of learning to play upon the instrument 
which had recently come to take the place of the 
spinet and the harpsichord. The elegant manners, 
lively imagination, fine conversational powers, and 
affectionate disposition of Mrs. Rowson won the 
hearts of her pupils ; gave her gradual access to 
the most refined and intelligent families of the 
town, and steadily increased the reputation of her 
school. In the autumn of this year she wrote a 
spirited ode on the birthday of John Adams, then 
president of the United States, which was received 



'In 1767, a piano was introduced on the stage al Covent Garden 

theatre, London, as a new instrument. — See New American Ency- 
clopaedia, article piano. 



MBS. SUSANNA BOWSON. 99 

with favor by both of the political parties, and se- 
cured the good will of a large and influential family 
circle. 

At the commencement of the new century, how- 
ever, she gave the public a poetic composition still 
more beautiful, entitled An Eulogy to. the Memory of 
George Washington, Esq., in which these impressive 
and admonitory lines occur : 

• Let this reflection dry a nation's tears : 
He died as ripe in glory as in years ; 
And though the loss of Washington is great, 
Adams remains to guide the helm of state ; 
And would you prove the hero's memory dear ? 
Learn his last parting precepts to revere : 
" My friends, my fellow citizens," said he, 
■' Be still unanimous, be great and free ; 
For know, a state may soon be rendered weak 
By foreign faction, or by private pique, 
Let not corruption e'er your judgment blind ; 
Preserve with care an independent mind ; 
Support, revere the laws ; believe me, friends, 
Your all on unanimity depends : 
By faction, all would be to chaos hurled, 
Be but united and defy the world." ' 



M rs. R.OW80D was intended for a teacher. Loving 
ardently the pursuit of literature, she had the rare 



1 Dr. Josiah Bartlett quoted these lines in his oration on the death 
of Washington. 



100 A MEMOIR OF 

and happy faculty, without which no instructor can 
succeed, of inspiring others with her own emotions. 
Her own enthusiasm awoke enthusiasm. She was 
moreover, systematic, dignified, persistent. Her 
school became the topic of conversation in the 
fashionable circles, and applications for admission 
to it were made from every section of the country. 
Finding her accommodations too limited, and 
desirous of enjoying the freshness and beauty of 
the country, Mrs. Rowson took a lease in the 
spring of 1800, of the beautiful mansion, since 
known as the Bigelow place, 1 about five miles 
from the capital, in the fine old town of Med ford, 
and to this charming spot transferred her school. 
The house, near that of Gov. John Brooks, is 
delightfully situated on the left or eastern bank of 
the Mystic river which winds along through mea- 
dows of the deepest green to meet the sea. Built 
on the acclivity rising gradually from the margin 
of the stream, and commanding a charming view 



'The Hon. Timothy Bigelow, from whom this place derives its 
name, removed to Medford in 1807, and died May 18, 1821, at the 
age of fifty-four years. One of his daughters became the wife of 
Abbott Lawrence. The house was built by Mr. Joseph Wyinan , 
of Woburn, who taught a school in it several years anterior to its 
occupation by Mrs. Kowson. Mrs. Newton, a sister of Gilbert 
Stuart, the painter, succeeded Mrs. Rowson. — Brooks's History of 
Medford, p. 292. 



MBS. sisAXNA ROWSOJV. 101 

of the distant spires of Boston and of Cambridge, 
it seems intended as the appropriate residence of 
the Muses and the Graces. The approach to it 
from the road which here runs through a very 
beautiful grove, is by a long avenue of lofty trees, 
whose branches interlacing, form a grateful shade. 
The ash, the elm, the pine, the linden, and the 
silver tree, display their rich and varied foliage; 
the clambering vines and wild flowers shed their 
fragrance on the evening air, and the song birds, 
unmolested, sing their sweetest melodies. Wander- 
ing at nightfall underneath the leafy arches of this 
secluded wood, through which the silver moon- 
beams glimmer, and listening to the murmuring of 
the waters and the whippoorwill's plaintive note, 
one could easily imagine himself in the sacred 
grove of Accidentia veins, dedicated to the study of 
divine philosophy. 

To this sylvan retreat, Mrs. Rowson drew pupils 
not only from this, but other states and even 
from the British provinces. Here she taught them 
those useful, varied and elegant accomplishments 
for which the ladies of the ancient rigime were 
so happily distinguished ; here she discussed the 
politics of the country with the eccentric Dr. David 
Osgood and the courtly Col. John Brooks: here 
she wrote her pathetic story, Sarah, in which her 



102 A MEMOIR OF 

own heart's struggles are most touchingly portrayed; 
here she composed the Choice, in which her beau 
ideal of terrestrial happiness is unfolded ; and here 
beneath the arching vines, and surrounded by her 
loving pupils in the summer evenings she would 
vividly recount some story of the olden times, or 
sing to the guitar, which she had learned to touch 
quite skillfully, a song of her own writing, or lead 
them forth into the mazes of a merry contra dance. 
By referring to the papers of that period I find 
that her charges were thirty dollars per month, for 
board; five dollars entrance each for music and 
dancing, and then seventy-five cents per lesson for 
one and eight dollars per quarter for the other. 
Mr. Peter Von Hagen 1 and then afterwards Mr. G. 
Graupner, 2 was her music teacher ; Mr. Miln taught 
the French language and Miss Peggy Swan of 
Medford, penmanship. The dancing master was 



J Mr. Peter A. Von Hagen, professor of music, died in Boston, 
October, 1803, aged 48 years. "A worthy and honest citizen." 
See Boston Weekly Magazine, Oct. 22, 1803. 

2 Mr. Gotlieb Graupner was born in Hanover, Germany, and 
was an oboe player in the royal band. He came t<> this country 
at the close of the last century and settled in Boston, where he 
was successfully engaged for many years in publishing, selling 
and teaching music. His house and store was No. 6 Franklin 
street. He was the first American importer of dementi's pianos. 
He married for his first wife Mrs. Catharine [Comoford] Hilliar by 
whom he had issue: 1. Olivia. 2. Catharine C. 3. Charles Wil- 



MBS. SUSANNA EOWSON 103 

Monsieur Des Forge, a French nobleman, whose 
daughter, Bernarclin Des Forge was a boarder in 
Mrs. Rowson's family. 

In discipline this celebrated teacher was severe, 
and yet not arbitrary ; fortiter in re, suaviter in moth 
was her constant rule of action. 

" A bell," says one of her Medford pupils, " was 
rung at five o'clock in the morning; we then arose 
and learned a lesson before breakfast. At seven 
o'clock the bell was rung again for prayers and 
when we had assembled, Mrs. Rowson, holding her 
English prayer book walked into the room with 
stately tread, and while the young ladies and 
assistants stood around her in a circle, read the 
morning family prayer ; we then sat down to break- 
fast, Mrs. Rowson presiding at the head of one 
table, Mrs. Haswell, or an assistant occupying the 
corresponding seat at the head of the other. At 



liam. 4. Samuel. 5. John Henry. M. (I), Margaret Beath. (2) 
Hester Thomson, (i. Frederick Lewis. 7. Charlotte E. ; and for 
his second wife, Miss Mary, daughter of Capt. John Hills, by whom 
he had: 8. Barriel Hills. 9. Stephen Hills. 10. Charles Edward. 
Mr. Gotlieh Graupnerdied April 16, 1836, aged 69 years, and was 
entombed in the family vault under St. Matthew's church, Smith 
Boston. His daughter, Harriet Hills, is a teacher of the piano, and 
his sun John Henry an engraver of music, Boston. 

The Graupner and Rowson families were always on intimate 
terms with each other. They occupied the same pew in Dr. John 
S. .). Gardiner's church. 



J 04 A MEMOIR OF 

dinner Mrs. Rowson offered thanks. We were 
never allowed to go unattended beyond the limits 
of the grove and garden, or to pluck a flower or 
fruit without permission of our teachers. Our les- 
sons were reading, writing, geography, drawing, 
painting, and embroidery. Our preceptress was 
very attentive to our dress and manners. If she 
noticed any of us sitting, or standing in a stooping 
posture, she would immediately pronounce the 
name of the forgetful one and assume herself the 
proper atitude. 

" At nine o'clock in the evening Mrs. Rowson, 
arrayed in a dark striped, or black silk, and some- 
times in a white muslin dress, entered the school 
room and read a prayer with a clear and impressive 
voice, and then receiving a parting kiss from her 
dear pupils, bade them an affectionate good night. 

" Though exact in her requirements as to neatness, 
order, punctuality, bienseance, and correct expression, 
she frequently indulged with us in little pleasantries, 
bon mots, and anecdotes which twined as flowers 
around the iron bands of discipline, and won with- 
out much hazard of respect the pupil's heart." 

" I once remarked to her," said a person who 
had the good fortune to attend her school, " that 
one of the young ladies had a most luxuriant head 
of curling hair." " Ah ! " said Mrs. Rowson, " that 



MBS. 8VSJJTMA ROWSON. 105 

is not her own hair, but a wig, and thereby hangs 
a tale; " alluding to a fever which had caused the 
lady's hair to fall. 

At another time a pupil asked her how the name 
of Madame de Genlis ought to be pronounced. After 
kindly telling her, Mrs. Rowson added : I once 
sent a servant to a bookstore for Madame de Genlis's 
works. He returned and said the bookseller knew 
nothing of them. " What did you ask for? " said 
I. " Why, I told him you wanted the history of 
Mad John Lee ! " 

On Saturday at noon, Mrs. Rowson was accus- 
tomed to present each scholar with a piece of paper 
on which was written her standing or deportment 
for the week, and which was called " the character." 
The reception of these brief, but very expressive 
words of praise or blame created generally a pro- 
found sensation in the seminary, and often caused 
the tear of joy or sorrow to flow forth. " What 
have you got? " "Let me see yours ! " "I told 
you that you would be sorry for it! " " Oh ! yours is 
always good ! " — and similar expressions flew from 
lip to lip on the retirement of the teacher from the 
presentation, and fresh resolves were made to 
make a better record on the coming week. Some 

of these celebrated characters on yellow paper and 
14 



106 A MEMOIR OF 

in faded ink are lying before me as I write, and as 
I read in Mrs. Rowson's neat and well known hand 
the significant words : " Incorrigible," " Inatten- 
tive," "Uniformly good," "Very neat, industrious 
and well behaved," "Excellent in manners," I seem 
to see the dark eyes of the gifted teacher fixed upon 
the beaming faces of the lovely group around her; 
to hear her words of sweet encouragement ; and 
responses from that shining circle touching millions 
yet to come : " Yes, beloved teacher, we will obey 
thy precepts and aspire to meet the duties which 
humanity and heaven impose ! " One of these 
papers bears the following pleasant turn upon the 
word character, which the school applied to them : 
" It is unnecessary, my dear young lady, to give you 
a character ; but I hope always to know you in the 
character of my friend. Susanna Rowson." 

To this the recipient has most affectionately 
added : " Dear, generous, kind hearted woman ! 
How often since that time have I wished, but in 
vain, that she could know the sorrow I have felt 
for any want of respect and gratitude I may have 
shown towards her and to ask her forgiveness. 
God grant that we may meet in heaven ! " l 

The following testimonials exhibit the heartiness, 



1 Mrs. Samuel Batchelder, of Cambridge, Mass., died 18G9. 



MRS. SUSANNA ROWSON. 107 

as well as the elegant style in which this earnest 
teacher was accustomed to recommend her merito- 
rious pupils. 

Mr. Doggett,i Medford, April 28, 1801. 

Sir : I am extremely happy in giving my testimony to the 
merits of Miss Sallie Burgess, who has been under my imme- 
diate care eight months. She is a young lady of good 
abilities, amiable disposition, and unexceptionable manners. 
She has made, whilst with me, great proficiency with her 
needle and pencils, and I believe her qualifications in gene- 
ral to be such as will render her a very desirable acquisition 
to any respectable academy. 

I am, Sir, 

With respect, 

Your humble servant, 

Susa. Rowson. 

Medford, April 28, 1803. 

Respected Sir : I have the pleasure of recommending to 
your friendly attention, Miss Mary Warner, a young lady 
whose personal merit, and acquired knowledge are such, as 
make me proud to acknowledge her having been my pupil 
for nearly a year and a half. 

In the department for which she is engaged for the 
Academy at Taunton, I have no doubt of her acquitting her- 
self with honor, and so as to obtain the entire approbation 
of her employers. There is nothing which seems likely to 
impede her immediate success but her extreme diffidence, 
and that is a defect (if so it may be named), which time 



1 This was the Rev. Simeon Doggett, preceptor of the academy 
Taunton, Mass. He died March 20, 1852, aged 87 years. 



108 A MEMOIR OF 

and experience will naturally rectify. Her disposition and 
manners are so amiable, that I feel much interested in her 
success and happiness. That she may ably fill the situation 
to which she is called, and her future good fortune in life 
be equal to her deserts is my fervent wish. 
I am, Sir, 

With respect, 

Your humble servant, 

Sa. Rowson. 
Mr. Doggett. 



On the sabbath, Mrs. Rowson was accustomed to 
lead her school in procession to the meeting-house, 
where seats in the galleries had been provided by a 
vote of the town, 1 and where the young ladies lis- 
tened for the most part with devout attention to the 
eloquent discourses of one of the ablest divines of his 
day. Some little occurrence, however, would occa- 
sionally create a new sensation, and furnish a topic 
of conversation for the week. On one sabbath morn- 
ing after the young ladies had taken their accus- 
tomed places in the gallery, and the good doctor 
given out his hymn, it was suddenly discovered that 
the choir, amounting to some forty or fifty, had left 
en masse, their accustomed seats, and that no one 



1 " Medford, May 12, 1800. Voted that the second and third seats 
in the women's gallery in the meeting house be allowed Mrs. 
Rowson for herself and scholars, and that, she be allowed to put 
doors and locks on them." — History of Medford, Mass., by the 
Rev. Charles Brooks, p. 292. 



MRS. SUSANNA ROWSON. 109 

appeared to sing a note. In this exigence, Mr. 
Rowson, with Gen. John Montgomery, of Haver- 
hill, N. H., who was then on a visit to the school, 
rose in his pew below, gave out the tune, and the 
heavy base of the one, uniting with the fine tenor 
of the other, formed a powerful duo which sur- 
prised and delighted the listening congregation. 
At the close of the service, Dr. Osgood tendered 
them his cordial thanks, and at dinner invited them 
to do the singing for him in the afternoon ; but 
when the service opened, every member of the choir, 
both male and female, was in his or her own place. 
At the examination of Mrs. Rowson's academy, 
which was held in Franklin Hall, Boston, October 
14, 1802, 1 a large and fashionable audience was 
present, when original dialogues, written in poetry 
by the preceptress, were spoken by the young 
ladies, all of whom were dressed in white; and 
elegant specimens of embroidery on satin, and 
painting in water colors, were exhibited. I will 



'The Boston Weekly Magazine gives this account of it: "The 
public were gratified by an exhibition of the drawing, needle- 
work and other improvements of the young ladies of Mrs. How- 
son's academy in Medford. The pupils assembled in Franklin Hull, 
Nassau, [since Common street |, which was decorated with a number 
of very beautiful specimens of embroidery, paintings and drawings 
in water colors, maps, etc. The ladies were attired with the great, 
est simplicity — no ornament whatever appearing among them — 
all pure white, and fit emblem of their own excellence." 



110 A MEMOIR OF 

venture to present my readers one of the many- 
pieces which were recited at this, or at a subsequent 
examination of this celebrated school. 1 



The Bee, A Fable, by Mrs. Rowson. 

[Spoken by her little niece, Mary Haswell.] 

Ladies and gentlemen, will you allow 

A very small girl, who scarcely knows how 

To make her courtesy in a proper way, 

To tell a story which she heard one day ? 

It chanced once on a time, no matter when, 

For all strange things they tell us happened then, 

A little bee on a sunshiny day 

Crept from the hive among the flowers to play. 

A wise old laborer of the hive espied 

His sportive gambols and thus gravely cried : 

" To work as well as play should be your pride, 

Come learn of me, for wisdom is a treasure, 

And you shall mingle profit with your pleasure. 

Observe this bed of clustering flowers ; behold 

Their velvet leaves all powdered o'er with gold, 

And see within the cups of crimson hue 

The precious drops of rich, nectareous dew. 



1 A beautiful poem on the Rights of Woman, by Mrs. Rowson, 
commencing 

While patriots on wide philosophic plan, 
Declaim upon the wondrous rights of man, etc., 

was spoken by Miss Mary Warner ; and Miss C. Hutchins read a 
fine prose composition which was published in the Boston Weekly 
Magazine. 



MBS. SUSANNA BOWSON. HI 

This golden dust, this precious dew collect, 

Now in the early morning, nor neglect 

To bear it to the hive, a valued store, 

Against the time when chilling torrents roar, 

And Boreas howls, and rains and snows descend, 

And bees must on their hoarded stores depend." 

Now this young bee was a good little creature, 

Had much good sense, industry and good nature ; 

She sipped the dew, scraped off the golden dust, 

That turned to liquid sweets, and in a crust 

Composed of this, the ambrosial treasure closed, 

But as she worked, a drone who had reposed 

For many a morning in a lily's bell, 

Addressed her thus : " Poor thing : 'tis mighty well 

That you have strength and spirits thus to labor, 

You are indeed a valuable neighbor 

To toil on thus from morn till eve for others ; 

For, trust me, little slave, I and my brothers, 

When we have spent the summer sweetly here, 

All winter will regale on your good cheer. 

For I'm too delicate, too blythe, too gay, 

To waste in toil my summer hours away, 

I was not formed for labor, I was made 

To rest on thyme beds in the myrtle shade : 

I do protest, were I obliged to bear 

That yellow dust away, and take such care, 

That not a grain is lost, that I should die, 

Fainting beneath the fever of the sky. 

But you were formed for toil and care by nature, 

And are a mighty good, industrious creature." 

" Winter draws nigh," replies the little bee, 

" And who is wisest we shall quickly see, 

My friend who warned me to beware in season, 

Or yours who left you in despite of reason 



112 A MEMOIR OF 

To bathe in dew, flit over beds of flowers 

Heedless of coming cold, or wintry showers." 

When winter came, the little bee was well, 

Secure and warm within her waxen cell ; 

The drones half starved came shivering to the door 

And forced an entrance, they could do no more : 

The laborers rose, the encroaching tribe drove forth 

To brave the terrors of the frigid north, 

Shrink in the rigor of the wintry sky, 

Lament their idleness ; to starve and die ; 

While the good little bee next coming May 

Hailed the returning sun, alert and gay, 

Led forth an infant swarm in healthful ease ; 

A bright example unto future bees. 

My story's ended ; but methinks you say, 

Is there no moral, little girl, I pray ? 

Yes, there's a moral ; hear it if you please ; 

This is the hive, and we're the little bees, 

Our governess is the adviser sage 

Who fits us for the world's delusive stage, 

By pointing out the weeds among the flowers, 

By teaching us to use our mental powers; 

To shun the former, and with nicest care 

Cull from the latter all that's sweet and fair, 

Extract their honey, keep their color bright 

To deck the chaplet for a winter's night. 

Have we succeeded ? Judge, you will not wrong us 

I trust we have no idle drones among us : 

Or is there one or two, how great their shame, 

Whilst here we're striving for the meed of fame, 

And catch with transports of exulting joy, 

The approbating glance from every eye ; 

To feel they cannot hope to share our pleasure, 

To know they slighted wisdom's offered treasure, 



MPS. SUSANNA ROWSON. H3 

To feel that those kind friends who dearest love them, 

Will blush and pity, while they can't approve them. 

dear, I would not for the richest gem 

That India can produce, feel just like them, 

Nor lose the joy we hope to feel this day, 

To hear our friends and patronesses say, 

" All is done right and well, and truly these 

Dear children are a hive of thriving bees." 

And should you thus approve, you'll make of me 

A very proud and happy little bee. 1 



1 From A Present for Young Ladies, containing Poems, Dia- 
logues, Addresses, etc., as recited by the Pupils of Mrs. Roicson's 
Academy at tin Annual Exhibitions. By Susanna Rowson. Bos- 
ton : published by John West & Co., No. 75 Cornhill. 1811. E. G. 
House, Printer. This little work of 156 pages, 18mo, is now 
quite rare. 



> 



15 



114 A MEMOIR OF 



CHAPTER XII. 



" The standard of society may be gracefully, and almost imper- 
ceptibly raised by exciting the attention to questions of taste, morals, 
ingenuity and literature." — Hannah More's Hints, p. 207. 

On the 30th of October, 1802, the Boston Weekly 
Magazine, a periodical in quarto form devoted to 
polite literature, and published by Samuel Gilbert 
and Thomas Dean, made its appearance. Mrs. 
Rowson was engaged as editor, and Mrs. John 
Murray, author of the Gleaner, Friend, etc., as one 
of the principal contributors. The paper was con- 
tinued three year3 x when it was superseded by the 
more able Monthly Anthology, edited by Mr. Wil- 
liam Tudor. As an early attempt to describe the 
manners, reprehend the follies, cultivate the taste 
and soften the customs of the people, the Boston 
Weekly Magazine is not discreditable to American 
literature. In looking over its pleasant and diver- 
sified pages I find among other poetical communi- 



1 This early American journal of polite literature was discon- 
tinued Oct. 19, 1805. Its volumes are now extremely rare. The 
only complete set known to the writer is in the Boston Athenjeum . 
In the last number but one, Mrs. liowson inserted some very beau- 
tiful lines on the death of a beloved pupil, Mrs. Lydia Parsons, 
aged 21 years, commencing : 

Wealth and youth and beauty joined 

Cannot sinking nature save. 
Lovely form, or lovelier mind, 

Shield the owner from the grave. 



MBS SUSANNA BOWSON. 115 

cations over the signature of S. R. this fine little 
address to a Canary Bird, which was found dead 
in its cage two days after the departure of its mis- 
tress from home : 

i. 

His mistress gone, poor little Bill, 
His wings in pensive sadness hung; 

His soft, melodious voice was still, 
Unless these mournful notes he sung. 

II. 

" Ah, mistress mine, where art thou gone ? 

Return, return," he plaintive cried; 
Thus many an hour he made his moan 

Till sick of hope deferred, he died. 

in. 

Poor bird, with thee I sympathize ; 

Such pangs the feeling bosom proves, 
That wrung with anguish hourly dies 

When absent from the friend it loves. 1 

Another pleasant little poem appears in the num- 
ber for April 3, 1803, entitled : 

Home. 

i. 
While round the globe the wanderer 

With wearied steps may roam; 
Through every stage, in every clime 

Each thought still points to home. 



1 Boston Weekly Magazine, Nov., 1802. 



116 A MEMO IB OF 

II. 

Each dear domestic scene is still, 

By partial fancy drest, 
And e'en the Greenland savage thinks 

His barren soil the best. 

in. 
So wheresoe'er henceforth by fate, 

This frame of mine may be, 
Each thought, each wish will fondly dwell, 

America, with thee. 

The following spirited ode appears in No. 5, 1802 

Thanksgiving. 

i. 
Autumn receding throws aside 

Her robe of many a varied dye ; 
And winter in majestic pride, 

Advances in the lowering sky ; 
The laborer in his granary stores 

The golden sheaves all safe from spoil ; 
While from her horn gay Plenty pours 

Her treasures to reward his toil. 
To solemn temples let us now repair, 
And bow in grateful adoration there; 
Bid the full strain in hallelujahs rise. 
To waft the sacred incense to the skies. 

II. 

Now the hospitable board, 

Groans beneath the rich repast ; 
All that luxury can aiFord, 

Grateful to the eye or taste. 



MBS. SUSANNA EOWSOJSF. 117 

While the orchard's sparkling juice, 

And the vintage join their powers, 
All that nature cau produce, 

Bounteous Heaveu bids be ours. 
Let us give thanks ; yes, yes, be sure, 
Send for the widow and the orphan poor ; 
Give them wherewith to purchase clothes and food, 
'Tis the best way to prove our gratitude. 

ill. 

On the hearth high flames the fire, 

Sparkling tapers lend their light; 
Wit and genius now aspire 

On Fancy's gay and rapid flight ; 
Now the viol's sprightly lay, 

As the moments light advance, 
Bids us revel, sport and play, 

Raise the song, or lead the dance. 
Come, sportive love and sacred friendship, come, 
Help us to celebrate our harvest-home ; 
In vain the year its annual tribute pours, 
Unless you grace the scene and lead the laughing hours. 

S. R. 



Mrs. Rowson contributed to this magazine a series 
of light and graceful papers, after the manner of 
the Spectator, on education, music, books, etc., called 
the Gossip, and running up to sixty or seventy 
numbers. In one of these papers, Gossip, !N"o. 13, 
the subject of which is Novel Reading, the writer 
says : "Of the works of Mrs. Rowson, Reuben and 



118 A MEMOIR OF 

Rachel, an historical romance, is the best. Charlotte 
and the Inquisitor have considerable degree of merit." 
This appears quite modest in comparison with the 
" mercenary puffing " of the present day, and it is, 
indeed, probable that some of the numbers of the 
Gossip were from another pen. 

But the most important contribution of Mrs. 
Rowson to this magazine was a serial story called 
Sincerity, in thirty-three numbers, the last of which 
appears in the issue of June the 20th, 1804. The 
whole was published by Charles Williams in a 
small volume in 1813, under the title of Sarah, the 
Exemplary Wife} The scene of this novel is laid in 
London, and the time extends from 1775 until 1793. 
The story opens where such productions generally 
terminate, with the wedding day, the first line of it 
being, " Yes, Anne, the die is cast, I am a wife." 
The motto is : " Do not marry a fool," etc., which 
those acquainted with the author's life perceive had 
sharp significance. In the sufferings and unflinch- 
ing fidelity of the heroine, Sarah Darnley, the author 



1 Sarah, the Exemplary Wife. By Susanna Rowson, author of 
Charlotte Temple, Reuben and Rachel, Fille de Ghambre, etc. etc. 
" Do not marry a fool : lie is continually doing absurd and dis- 
graceful things, for no other reason but to show he dares do them." — 
Gregory's Legacy. Remember that nothing but strict truth can 
carry you through life with honor and credit. Boston : Published 
by Charles Williams ; Watson & Bangs, Printers, 1813. 



MBS. SUSAJSTITA BOWSON. 119 

is said to have given with a very faithful pen, the 
portraiture of her own checkered and eventful life ; 
and one of her intimate acquaintances once said to 
me, " This is her best biography." The remark 
must be understood, however, as referring, not so 
much to the outward scenes and circumstances, 
though some of these the author but too well re- 
membered, as to the sufferings and discipline of the 
heart. The plan of the story is simple; the lead- 
ing characters are few, distinct and consistent with 
themselves in word and action; the style is easy, 
flowing, natural, and sometimes truly tender and 
pathetic. The volume closes with this exalted sen- 
timent, which came directly from the writer's own 
generous and chastened soul : " It is the sincere and 
pious spirit alone, that tried in the thrice heated 
furnace of affliction, comes out like refined gold, 
bright and pure and fit to be placed in the palace 
of the Most High." — Sarah, p. 270. 

In the summer of 1803, Mrs. Rowson removed 
her school from Medford to the large and commo- 
dious mansion of the celebrated Gen. "William Hull 1 
of Newton, and held her first public examination in 



'Gen. William Hull, bom in Derby, Conn., .Tunc 24, 1753 ; Yale 
College, ITT'2 ; and died November 29, 1825 ; was a warm persona] 
friend of Mis. Rows m, an I a patron of ber school. Although ac- 
tually condemned to death for his supposed pusillanimity in the 
affair at Detroit, it seems now to be the prevailing opinion that his 



120 A MEMOIR OF 

Harrington Hall, "Watertown, in October following. 
The papers spoke of it in glowing terms of com- 
mendation. Her seminary continued to rise in 
popular favor ; distinguished families in every part 
of the country bestowed on it their patronage; and 
it was not misplaced; for her large experience, 
fertile fancy, love of order, aptitude to teach and 
great executive ability, rendered it one of the very 
best institutions of the kind upon this continent. 

In order to make a deep impression on the mind, 
she had inscribed in imposing capitals along the walls 
of her school room, mottoes such as these : " What 
has been done may be done." " Speak the truth 
always." " Perseverance leads to excellence." 
She caused her pupils to write with pencil letters to 
their parents and she then with anxious care cor- 
rected them ; she insisted not only on polite be- 
havior, but also on the use of elegant forms of 
speech and a distinct articulation ; she taught her 
pupils the art, and impressed upon them the im- 
portance of preserving health ; she diverted them 
by a frequent change of study ; she encouraged 
them by judicious commendation ; and loving litera- 



course at the time was worthy of praise instead of condemnation. 
He married Sarah Fuller, and had Sarah, born 1783 ; Eliza, born 
1784, married Isaac McClellan ; Abraham Fuller, born 1786 ; Nancy 
Binney, born 1787 ; Maria, born 1788 ; Eebecca Parker, born 1790 ; 
and Caroline, born 1793. Sec Ward's History of Newton, p. 312. 



MRS. SUSANNA ROW SON. 121 

ture most ardently herself, she by the secret law of 
sympathy awakened in their minds a kindred taste 
for it. Her pupils can never forget the ardor, life 
and love she manifested in her instructions at this 
period ; the brilliancy of her conversation ; the 
splendor of her examinations, or the gentleness of 
her heart. 1 The second public exhibition of the 



1 One of her old term bills, neatly made out in her own beautiful 

chirography, and now lying before me, is no1 devoid of interest as 

indicative of some of the studies of her pupils, and of the cost of 

female education at that period : 

Newton, May 20, 1805. 

Joiin Montgomery, Esq., 

To S. Rowson, Dr. 

To 23 weeks board for his daughter, Miss Ann Montgomery, $57 00 

" Do Tuition 10 50 

■ I fee of books, pens and ink, 75 

'• Silk for finishing embroidery, 1 00 

" Altering, printing and painting, do 1 50 

" Use of embroidery frame 25 

" 4 writing books, 80 

" Drawing paper, pencils, etc., 1 50 

" Washing 13 pieces 54 

" 1 Grammar, 20 

" Carriage to meeting, 1 50 

sm :,l 
" Entrance and one quarter's dancing, 9 00 

To 15 weeks board of Miss Mary Montgomery, 37 50 

" Do Tuition, 11 25 

" Use of books, pens and ink, 60 

" Use of piano-forte, 2 20 

" 2 writing books, 40 

" Drawing paper, pencils, etc., 85 

" Satin, silk. etc.. for a screen, 5 00 

" Use of embroidery frame 25 

" Small piece for pin cushion 50 

•• Ticket to the play and carriage for both ladies \ 66 

" Washing. 13 pieces, 64 



$63 81 
Deduct for one week's absence of Miss Ann, 3 25 

Miss Ann, $§0 84 Cash reed, of J. M. Esq.,. . . 50 00 

Mis- Mary 63 81 



164 U> Paid, 

53 23 Susan Rowson. 



$53 25 



Balance due S. R. $101 23 

16 



122 A MEMOIR OF 

school in Newton occurred, October 17, 1804, and 
engaged the attention of the public quite as much 
as the commencement at the college in the neigh- 
boring town of Cambridge. 

Mrs. Rowson had a thorough knowledge of the 
Word of God ; she took it as her guide, and made 
it the basis of her educational system. She inter- 
preted it with singular ability, and her scriptural 
readings at this epoch in her life became quite 
celebrated. The Rev. Dr. Jonathan Homer 1 and 
the leading families in the vicinity used to go into 
the school room and with rapt attention sit and 
hear this popular teacher read and eloquently ex- 
pound the sacred page to her beloved pupils. 

Mrs. Rowson's diversion was her pen. To this 
she betook herself when her pupils had retired to 
rest, and lovingly portrayed the shifting scenes of 
busy fancy, or the joys and sorrows of her own gene- 
rous heart. With little regard for praise or blame, 
she wrote in prose or verse because she loved to 
write, and when her thoughts were once on paper, 
cared but little for revision, or the judgment which 
the world might pass on them. 



1 This excellent divine died at Newton, Aug. 11, 1843, aged eighty- 
four years. He spent much time in making a comparison of the differ- 
ent versions and editions of the Bible for the purpose of ascertaining 
the correct reading, He was a warm friend of Mrs. Rowson and 
her school. 



MRS. SUSANHA BOWSOX. 123 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Mais elle a su prouver cjue sous see doigts legers 
Soupire sans effort la flute des borders. 

Ligouve, Le Merlte des Femmes, p. 10. 

In the autumn of 1804 Mrs. Rowson published 
by subscription a volume of 227 pages, entitled 
Miscellaneous Poems by Susanna Rowson , Preceptress 
of the Ladies' Academy, Newton, Mass. 1 The sub- 
scribers' names, in all 245, are printed at the be- 
ginning of the book, and among them I find 
those of many of the celebrated personages of the 
day, as Mrs. Josiah Bradlee, Col. David Humphreys, 
John H. Payne, Robert Treat Payne, Junr., Esq., 
Thomas 0. Selfridge, Esq., etc., of Boston; Mrs. 
Charles Baring of Charleston, S. C; Gen. "William 
Hull and Dr. Jonathan Homer of Newton ; Madame 
Elizabeth Price of Hopkinton ; Mr. Leverett Sal- 
tonstall of Salem, etc. They were for the most part 
patrons of her school. In looking over this time 
worn, but well printed volume, I find a great variety 



'There is a favorable review of these poems in the Monthly 
Anthology, 1804, vol. i, p. Gil, written probably by Mr Tudor, 
who cites this stanza as a specimen of the author's style : 

Yes, they are happy, if the polished gem. 

On which the sun in varied colors plays, 
Rejoices that its lustre comes from Him, 
And glows delighted to reflect his praise. 



124 A MEMOIR OF 

of poems on different subjects, moral, patriotic, 
amatory, elegiac, in various metrical forms and of 
various degrees of merit. 

In common with the poets of her day, Mrs. Row- 
son frequently personifies the faculties of the mind, 
and makes them play their scenic parts before us. 
Her versification is generally smooth, her images 
striking ; but she often wrote too rapidly, sometimes 
too sentimentally, to write well. "With much, how- 
ever, that is affected, and much that bears the 
marks of haste, we occasionally meet with pieces 
rich and vigorous in thought, as they are graceful 
and appropriate in language. 

The lines to Solitude written at midnight are inter- 
esting as a faithful record of the author's own per- 
sonal experience. 



Soft sleep the moonbeams on the stream ; 

Light breathes the zephyr through each tree, 
Sweet chirps the cricket ; all things seem 

Attuned to solitude and me. 



II. 

Oh ! soul reviving Solitude ! 

Only by active minds enjoyed ; 
Fled by the ignorant and rude, 

And by unfeeling mirth destroyed ! 



MBS. SUSANNA BOWSON. 125 

III. 

Ob ! let me in the evening shade, 

Stray where the solemn night bird flits ; 

And where in sober weeds arrayed, 
Eagle-eyed contemplation sits. 

IV. 
Let her my soaring spirit bear 

To the etherial realms above, 
To mix with kindred spirits there 

And join their strains of peace and love. 

V. 
There friendship which on earth was pure, 

Shall be with double force renewed ; 
There from malignant fiends secure, 
'Twill be no crime to love the good. 

VI. 

Few are the moments I can spare, 

Mild solitude, to pass with thee; 
Yet few and scanty as they are, 

How dear those moments are to me. 

VII. 

Now night her dusky wing hath spread 
And half the world is wrapped in sleep ; 

Still as the mansions of the dead, 
E'en misery's self forgets to weep. 

VIII. 

This hour's my own ; I need not fear 
Thou wilt my secret soul betray ; 



126 A MEMOIR OF 

Thy sombre vail conceals the tear 
Which dreads the glaring eye of day. 



IX. 

To thee my tortured soul can own 

Its faults and sue to be forgiven ; 
Kneeling before the awful throne 

Of the all-righteous God of Heaven. 

x. 

God ! great as good ! and wise as great ! 

To thee each secret stands revealed ; 
Thou art my hope, in thee I trust, 

From thee my heart is not concealed. 

XI. 

Oh ! shed on my perturbed breast 
Thy peace, and grant, forgot by all, 

When death shall wrap my soul in rest, 
Oblivion's shade may o'er me fall. 

The Choice, though inferior to that of John Pom- 
fret and hardly equal to that of John Cotton, or that 
of the Kev. Elijah Fitch, is still by no means devoid 
of merit, and is, so far as I am aware, the only one 
ever written by a lady : 

I ask no more than just to be 
From vice and folly wholly free ; 
To have a competent estate 
Neither too small, nor yet too great ; 



MRS. SUSAJVJVA BOWSOJT. 127 

Something of rent and taxes clear, 

About five hundred pounds a year. 

My house, though small should be complete 

Furnished, not elegant, but neat; 1 

One little room should sacred be 

To study, solitude and me. 

The windows, jessamine should shade 

Nor should a sound the ear invade, 

Except the warblings from the grove, 

Or plaintive murmurings of the dove. 

Here would I often pass the day 

Turn o'er the page, or tune the lay, 

And court the aid and sacred fire 

Of the Parnassian tuneful choir. 

While calmly thus my time I'd spend 

Grant me, kind Heaven, a faithful friend 

In each emotion of my heart, 

Of grief or joy to bear a part, 

Possessed of learning and good sense, 

Free from pedantic insolence ; 



'Jean F. Ducis expresses the corresponding idea thus: 

Petit sejour, commode et sain 
Ou des arts et du luxe en vain 
On chercherait quelque merveille ; 
Humble asileou j'ai sos la main 
Mon La Fontaine ct mon Corneille. 

Pomfret not so elegantly : 

It should within no other things contain 
But what were useful, necessary, plain ; 
Metbinks 'tis nauseous, and I'd ne'er endure 
The needless pomp of gaudy furniture. 

Dr. Benjamin Church in his Choice has it thus : 

No needless pomp my modest dome should claim, 
Neat and genteel without ; within, the same. 

For the latter see Boston Weekly Maga&iru . April 6, 1805. 



128 A MEMOIR OF 

Pleased with retirement let him be ; 
Yet cheerful midst society ; 
Know how to trifle with a grace, 
Yet grave in proper time and place. 



Let frugal plenty deck my board, 
So that its surplus may afford 
Assistance to the neighboring poor, 
And send them thankful from the door. 
A few associates I'd select, 
Worthy esteem and high respect ; 
And social mirth I would invite, 
With sportive dance on tip-toe light ; 
Nor should sweet music's voice be mute, 
The vocal strain, or plaintive lute; 
But all, and each, in turn agree, 
To afford life sweet variety ; 
To keep serene the cheerful breast, 
And give to solitude a zest. 

And often be it our employ, 
For there is not a purer joy, 
To wipe the languid grief-swollen eye, 
To soothe the pensive mourner's sigh, 
To calm their fears, allay their grief, 
And give, if possible, relief. 
But if this fate, directing heaven 
Thinks too indulgent to be given, 
Let health and innocence be mine, 
And I will strive not to repine ; 
Will thankful take each blessing lent, 
Be humble, patient and content. 

Miscellaneous Poems, p. 137. 



MRS. SUSANNA ROWSON. 129 

Of the sonnets in this volume perhaps the follow- 
ing quoted in Duyckinck's Cyclopedia of American 
Literature, vol. i, p. 533, is the most pleasing. 

The primrose gay, the snowdrop pale, 
The lily blooming in the vale, 
Too fragile or too fair to last, 
Wither beneath the untimely blast, 

Or rudely falling shower. 
No more a sweet perfume they shed, 
Their fragrance lost, their beauty fled, 

They can revive no more. 

So hapless woman's wounded name, 
If Malice seize the trump of fame ; 
Or Envy should her poison shed 
Upon the unprotected head 

Of some forsaken maid ; 
Though pity may her fate deplore, 
Her virtues sink to rise no more, 

From dark oblivion's shade. 

Ibid., p. 116. 

The following light effusions are conceived in 
the same happy manner : 

To Hope. 

Gilded phantom, light and vain, 

Gay, delusive, fleeting thing; 
Flattering shade, descend again, 

Bear me on thy downy wing. 
17 



130 A MEMOIR OF 

What though oft thou dost deceive, 
Still I woo thee to my breast, 

Listen still and still believe, 

Till each doubt is hushed to rest. 

To the Rose. 



Lovely, blushing, fragrant Rose, 

Emblem of life's transient joys, 
Ere half thy sweets thou canst disclose. 

One rude touch thy bloom destroys. 

II. 
Though the sweetness thou dost yield, 

Can pleasure to each sense impart, 
The thorn, beneath thy leaves concealed, 

Oft wounds the unsuspecting heart. 

In the Thunder Storm we have this natural and 
effective passage, which conveys a good idea of the 
whole piece : 

See where the lightning rends the sturdy oak, 
Around the wood the shattered atoms fly ; 

The savage herd, astonished at the stroke, 
Quick to their dens for shelter hie ; 

The boding raven e'en forgets to croak, 
And nature seems in silent agony. 

Her Hymn to the Deity, though in poetic merit in- 
ferior to that of Pope or of Mrs. Carter, still sur- 



MBS. SUSANNA BOWSON. 131 

passes both of them in depth and earnestness of 
devotion : 



Alpha, Omega, first and last, 

Creative Spirit, Power Supreme, 
Whose hand directs the stormy blast, 

Or gilds the morning's ardent beam ; 

II. 

Who spake and from chaotic night 
Unnumbered worlds and systems rose ; 

Whose word is life ; whose presence, light, 
Whose smiles are health, content, repose. 

III. 
Where dost thou dwell ? Thy throne how high ; 

Where hast thou fixed thy dwelling place ? 
Can finite wishes ever fly 

E'en to the footstool of thy grace ? 

IV. 
Oh, could I now ascend and stand 

Upon the zenith of the globe, 
And mark how round, on either hand, 

The heavens enwrap it as a robe ; 



How orbs of pure empyrean light 
Around the wondrous system roll ; 

Revolving seasons day and night, 
Visit each land from pole to pole. 



132 A MEMOIR OF 

VI. 

View the vast stores of hail and snow, 
The region of the air contains ; 

Trace whence the genial breezes blow, 
Or whence descend refreshing rains ; 

VII. 

Could I ascend the orb of light, 

That great, that wondrous type of thee, 

And at one wide, extended sight 
The unbounded universe could see. 

VIII. 

Where should I find thee ? Still above, 
Bright clouds thy majesty enshrine, 

Emitting rays of joy and love ; 
Of joys eternal, love divine. 

IX. 

Where should I find thee ? Need I ask ? 

Is there a shrub, a plant, a flower, 
But makes its daily, hourly task, 

To speak thy presence and thy power ? 

x. 

E'en now when silence reigns around, 
E'en in this solemn hour of night, 

Thy voice is heard ; and thou art found 
In all thy works revealed to sight. 

XI. 

Ten thousand insects chant thy praise ; 

Ten thousand worlds thy power declare ; 
None from thine eye can hide his ways, 

For thou art present everywhere. 



MBS. SUSANNA JiOWSON 133 

XII. 

Then teach the atom thou hast made 

To trust and hope thy mercy still ; 
To fear thy wrath, to seek thy aid, 

To love thy laws and do thy will." — Ibid., p. 55. 

Mrs. Rowson had acquired in early life, and while 
a governess in England, some knowledge of the 
French and Latin languages, from the former of 
which she made the translation or paraphrase of 
the celebrated Marseillaise Hymn — commencing 

Columbia's sons awake to glory, 

Your Guardian Genius bids you rise — 

which, with some alterations, has been adopted as 
a national song in this country ; and from the latter, 
she rendered into English metre the 10th eclogue of 
Virgil and five of the odes of Horace. Her version 
oftbe 23d ode of Horace, book in, is perhaps equal 
in spirit to that of Francis and may serve as a fair 
specimen of the whole. 

C(ELO SUPINAS SI TULERIS, ETC. 

I. 
Phidyle, simple, rustic dame, 
If thou hast fanned the sacred flame, 
Hast bade the smoke of incense rise, 
Or raised thy hands toward the skies, 
When the chaste queen of night, now born, 
Faintly displays her silver horn : 



134 A MEMOIR OF 

II. 

If thou hast offered ripened grain, 
But lately reaped from off the plain, 
Hast offered fruits that might suffice, 
To appease the household deities ; 
Invoked their aid with rites divine, 
And sacrificed a hungry swine : 

ill. 
If with pure hands and heart sincere, 
A conscience from offences clear; 
Then shall thy prayers accepted he, 
Thy flocks and fields from hlightbe free; 
The gods thy industry shall bless, 
And crown thy labors with success. 

IV. 

Let wealth and power be displayed. 
By pompous gifts on altars laid ; 
Even bread and salt if freely given, 
Are more acceptable to heaven ; 
And the best sacrifice assigned, 
Is a pure heart and grateful mind. 

Ibid., p. 164. 

The Little Sailor Boy, written for the author's 
brother, William Haswell, and set to music was 
a popular song in its day : 

i. 
The sea was calm, the sky serene, 

And gently blew the western gale, 
When Anna, seated on a cliff, 

Watched the Lovina's lessening sail. 



MRS. SUSANNA ROWSON. 135 

To Heaven she thus her prayers addressed : 
" Thou who canst save, or canst destroy. 

From each surrounding danger guard, 
My much loved little sailor boy. 

II. 

" When tempests o'er the ocean howl, 

And even sailors shrink with dread, 
Be some protecting angel near 

To hover round my William's head. 
He was beloved by all the plain, 

His father's pride, his mother's joy ; 
Then safely to their arms restore, 

Their much loved little sailor boy. 

in. 
" May no rude foe his course impede, 

Conduct him safely o'er the waves. 
Oh may he never be compelled 

To yield to power or mix with slaves. 
May smiling peace his steps attend, 

Each rising hour be crowned with joy, 
As blest as that when I again, 

Shall meet my much loved sailor boy." 
Ibid., p. 210. 

The song of the Independent Farmer trips away 
in sprightly anapaestic measure, cleverly setting 
forth the felicities of rural life : 

1. 
When the bonny gray morning just peeps from the skies, 

And the lark mounting tunes her sweet lay, 
With a mind unencumbered by care I arise, 

My spirits light, airy, and gay. 



136 A MEMOIR OF 

I take up my gun ; honest Tray, my good friend, 

Wags his tail and jumps sportively round ; 
To the woods then together our footsteps we bend, 

'Tis there health and pleasure are found. 
I snuff the fresh air ; bid defiance to care, 

As happy as mortal can be, 
From the toils of the great, ambition and state, 

'Tis my pride and my boast to be free. 

ii. 
At noon I delighted to range o'er the soil, 

And nature's rough children regale ; 
With a cup of good home-brewed I sweeten their toil, 

And laugh at the joke or the tale. 
And whether the ripe waving corn I behold, 

Or the innocent flock meet my sight, 
Or the orchard whose fruit is just turning to gold, 

Still, still health and pleasure unite. 
I snuff the fresh air, bid defiance to care, etc. 

ill. 
At night to my lowly roofed cot I return, 

When, Oh ! what new sources of bliss ; 
My children rush out while their little hearts burn, 

Each striving to gain the first kiss. 
My Dolly appears with a smile on her face ; 

Good humor presides at our board, 
What more than health, plenty, good humor and peace, 

Can the wealth of ta« judies afford ? 
I sink into rest with dontent in my breast, 

As happy as mortal can be, 
From the toils of the great, ambition and state, 

'Tis my pride and my boast to be free. 

Ibid., p. 193. 



MBS. SUSANNA ROWSON. 137 

Her masculine song of America, Commerce and 
Freedom was sung, during the first quarter of this 
century, all over the country. It is certainly too 
boisterous for the pen of a lady ; but it must be 
remembered that the author was the daughter of 
a sailor, and had herself learned to navigate a ship. 

i. 

IIuw blest the life a sailor leads, 

From clime to clime still ranging, 
For as the calm the storm succeeds, 

The scene delights by changing. 
When tempests howl along the main, 

Some object will remind us, 
And cheer with hopes to meet again, 

Those friends we've left behind us. 
Then under snug sail, we laugh at the gale, 

And though landsmen look pale, never heed 'em, 
But toss off a glass to a favorite lass, 

To America. Commerce and Freedom. 

II. 
And when arrived in sight of land, 

Or safe in port rejoicing, 
Our ships we moor, our sails we hand, 

Whilst out the boat is hoisting. 
With eager haste, the shore we reach, 

Our friends delighted greet us; 
And tripping lightly o'er the beach, 

The pretty lasses meet us. 
When the full flowing bowl has enlivened the soul, 

To foot it we merrily load 'em, 
And each bouny lass will drink off a glass, 

To America, Commerce and Freedom. 
18 



138 A MEMOIR OF 

in. 

Our cargo sold, the chink we share, 

And gladly we receive it, 
And if we meet a brother tar 

Who wants, we freely give it. 
No freeborn sailor yet had store, 

But cheerfully would lend it, 
And when 'tis gone, to sea for more, 

We earn it but to spend it. 
Then drink round my boys, tis the first of our joys, 

To relieve the distressed, cluthe and feed 'em, 
'Tis a task which we share with the brave and the fair, 

In this land of Commerce and Freedom. 

Ibid., p. 201. 



Truxion's Victory was for a while more popular 
even than the two preceding songs. The spirit 
of those stirring political times is finely portrayed, 
and the story of our most important naval encounter 
with France well told : 



When Freedom, fair Freedom her banner displayed, 
Defying each foe whom her rights would invade, 
Columbia's brave sons swore their rights to maintain, 
And o'er ocean and earth to establish her reign. 
United they cry, 
While that standard shall fly, 
Resolved, firm and steady, 
We always are ready 
To fight and to conquer ; to conquer or die. 



MBS. SUSANNA ROWSON. 139 

II. 
Though Gallia through Europe has rushed like a flood, 
And deluged the earth with an ocean of blood; 
While by faction she's led, while she's governed by knaves, 
We court not her smiles and we'll ne'er be her slaves. 

Pier threats we defy, 

While our standard shall fly, 

Resolved, firm and steady, 

We always are ready 
To fight and to conquer ; to conquer or die. 

in. 
Though France with caprice, dares our statesmen upbraid, 
A tribute demands, or sets bounds to our trade ; 
From our young rising navy our thunders shall roar, 
And our commerce extend to the earth's utmost shore. 

Our cannon we'll ply, 

While our standard shall fly, 

Resolved, firm and steady, 

We always are ready 
To fight and to conquer; to conquer or die. 



IV. 
To know we're resolved, let them think on the hour, 
When Truxton, 1 brave Truxton off Nevis's shore, 
His ship manned for battle, the standard unfurled, 
And at the Insursente defiance he hurled. 



l The action between the Constellation, 38 guns, Commodore 
Thomas Truxton and the French frigate, L'Insurgente, to guns 
Capt. Barreault, took place off Nevis on the 9th of February, 1799. 
After an hour's sharp engagement the enemy struck her colors, 
having twenty-nine killed and forty-four wounded. We bad 



140 A MEMOIR OF 

And his valiant war cry, 
While our standard shall fly, 
Resolvei, firm and steady, 
We always are ready 
To fight and to conquer ; to conquer or die. 

v. 
Each heart beat exulting, inspired by the cause, 
They fought for their country, their freedom and laws ; 
From their cannon loud volleys of vengeance they poured, 
And the standard of France to Columbia was lowered. 

Huzzah ! they now cry, 

Let the eagle wave high, 

Resolved, firm and steady 

We always are ready 
To fight and to conquer ; to conquer or die. 

VI. 
Then raise high the strain, pay the tribute that's due 
To the fair Constellation and all her brave crew, 
Be Truxton revered and his name be enrolled 
'Mongst the chiefs of the ocean, the heroes of old. 
Each invader defy, 
While such heroes are nigh, 
Who always are ready, 
Resolved, firm and steady 
To fight and to conquer ; to conquer or die. 

Ibid., p. 212. 

Since our literature has been enriched by the 
sweetand elevated strains of Amelia "Welby, Hannah 



only one man killed and two wounded. Commodore Truxton died 
at Philadelphia, May 5, 1822, aged sixty seven. See History of 
the Wavy of the U. .8. A., by J. F. Cooper, vol. i, p. 168. 



MRS. SUSANNA ROWSON. 141 

F. Gould, Lydia H. Sigourney, Alice and Phoebe 
Carey, Sarah Jane Lippincott, and other female 
favorites of the muse, these poems of Mrs. Rowson 
would hardly seem to merit the attention I have 
bestowed on them ; yet it must be borne in mind 
that they Avere written when the author of Ouabi 
and Honora Martesia l were almost the only rivals of 
her sex in the field ; and by a lady whose early edu- 
cation was often interrupted by the vicissitudes 
of fortune ; whose associates were connected with 
the army, navy and the stage ; whose domestic state 
was far from being happy, and whose time was 
mostly occupied in the ceaseless struggle for daily 
bread. Reflecting, as they do, the spirit, taste, 
and manners of an age immediately succeeding the 
American revolution, they seem to be worthy of a 
place in some small corner in the library of every 
one interested in the early history and progress of 
our literature. Though too often painting the 
frailties of women, they, nevertheless, breathe sen- 
timents of ardent patriotism and of reverence for 
religion and for God. Her later poems, as her 
later life, it will be seen, are more serious, elevated 
and devotional. 



1 The soubriquet of Mrs. John Murray. Her maiden name was 
Judith Sargent. She wast lie sister of Governor Sargenl of Missis 
sippi, and died at Natchez, June 6th, 1820, aged sixty-nine years. 
She sometimes wrote under the name of Constantia. 



142 A MEMOIR OF 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Et c'est la bonte qu'on clit'rit. 

Voltaire. 

In the spring of 1805, Mrs. Rowson received 
the sad intelligence of the death of her beloved 
father, who died at Newport, Wallinsgton, near 
South Cave, Yorkshire, England, on the 26th of 
February, at the age of seventy-three years. In 
speaking of his decease the Boston Weekly Maga- 
zine says : " He married about the year 1769, for 
his second wife, a New England lady, and bring- 
ing over an infant daughter settled near Boston, 
and continued an inhabitant here until the third 
year of the revolutionary war. He was a man 
of integrity, and a gentleman, and has given four 
valuable citizens to this commonwealth. His eldest 
son, Captain Robert Haswell is supposed lately 
to have been lost on a voyage to the north-west 
coast; his second son commands a vessel out of 
this port ; his youngest son is a lieutenant in the 
United States navy, and his only daughter, Mrs. 
Susanna Rowson, is preceptress of the young ladies' 
academy in Newton." l 



See Boston Weekly Magazine, August 31, 1805. 



MRS. SUSANNA ROWSON. 143 

Although Mrs. Rowson had as many as sixty 
young ladies, thirty of whom resided in her family, 
to instruct daily, she still found time this year to 
prepare for the press an Abridgment of Universal 
Geography? and History from the works of Guthrie, 
Walker and Morse. It contains the subject mat- 
ter of her instructions in these important branches 
of education. She had been accustomed for seve- 
ral years to write out exercises for her pupils 
to transcribe and commit to memory. These 
lessons she carefully revised and gave to the press. 
The work is well arranged and written in a lucid 
and entertaining style. It proved to be of great 
service in her own, as well as in other kindred 
institutions. Had it appeared on good paper, and 
had it contained, as the cotemporaneous works of 
Morse and Parish, a series of illustrative maps 
and charts, it would undoubtedly have had a far 
more extensive circulation. Her excellent mode of 
treating and teaching history, may be seen from the 
closing page of the book: 

" How were the United States governed after the 
revolution ? 



1 The title is : " An Abridgment of Universal Geography, together 
with sketches of History. Designed for the use of schools and 
academics in the Dnited Slates. By Susanna Rowson. Boston : 
Printed for John West, No. 75 Cornhill. David Carlisle, Printer, 



144 A MEMOIR OF 

"By a congress, consisting of senators assisted 
by representatives from each state ; but a constitu- 
tion hastily formed was not likely to be permanent, 
and in 1789 it was thought necessary to new form 
it when by the wisdom of those able statesmen who 
undertook the arduous task, it was new modelled 
and fixed on a solid and permanent foundation; 
and as it was thought necessary that such a great 
people should have a chief magistrate at the head 
of their government, on the 3d of March, 1789, 
George Washington, Esq., was chosen first presi- 
dent of the United States of America, by the una- 
nimous voice of more than three millions of 
freemen. He filled this dignified station with 
honor to himself, and satisfaction to the states, 
till the year 1797, when he resigned the presidency, 
and retired to the enjoyment of domestic peace in 
the bosom of his family at Mount Vernon. In 
1798, he accepted the appointment of commander- 
in-chief of the American forces. Convinced that 
the exigence of the times required his assistance, he 
gave a noble proof that his own private happiness 
was of but little value in his own estimation, when 
put in competition with the public weal. But the 



Cambridge street. 1805. 12mo, pp. :!02." It is favorably re- 
viewed on page i)04 of the Literary Miscellany, published at 
Cambridge, 1806, 



MRS. SUSANNA ROWSON. 145 

days of his glory are past. In December, 1799, 
this great and good man received his passport to 
the regions of immortality. Alas, for Columbia ! 
the shades of death rest upon him ; the silence of 
the tomb surrouuds him; but his pure spirit 
rejoices in the regions of eternal day; and the 
humblest child of genius may snatch a laurel to 
save her labors from oblivion, while she twines a 
wreath to consecrate his name. 



i. 

" Heroes have been renowned in ancient days, 
And various poets have their praises sung; 
And Scipio's, Caesar's, Alexander's praise 
Known in all ages, told in every tongue. 

ii. 

But o'er these heroes' fame some dusky shade, 
Hangs to eclipse their virtues, else divine ; 

But one whom vice, nor folly could mislead, 

Ne'er lived but once; — Columbia, he was thine. 

III. 

Envy stood mute, she could no blemish find, 
And when translated to his native sky, 

Fame linked with gratitude a wreath entwiued, 
Fair as his virtues which can never die." 

Two years later Mrs. Rowson published, from 

her own autograph transcriptions for her school, 
19 






]46 A MEMOIR OF 

a Spelling Dictionary divided into Short Lessons for 
the easier committing to Memory by Children and 
Young Persons." 1 The second edition, published 
at Portland, by Isaac Adams, 1815, lies before 
me. As most of the school books of that day, 
it is printed with miserable type and ink on a 
kind of coarse brown wrapping paper and bound 
in boards. It contains one hundred and fifty-six 
pages of words carefully divided into syllables and 
defined ; together with a concise account of the 
heathen deities at the close. In the advertisement 
to this edition she says : " It has been my study 
for eighteen years to render the little talent with 
which I have been entrusted beneficial to society ; 
and I can truly say that the happiest moments of 
my life have been those in which I have been em- 
ployed in the instruction of the young and unin- 
formed. Should it please God to continue my life 
and indulge me with a moderate portion of health, 
I hope in a short time to give unquestionable proofs 
that the permanent good of the rising generation is 
the object nearest my heart." 2 



1 The collectors of early American school books consider this, as 
indeed all of Mrs. Rowson's educational works, quite rare. A copy 
of the original edition was sometime ago presented to the library 
of Harvard College by the Hon. Charles Sumner. 

2 Reference is here made to the Biblical Dialogues which she 
was then preparing. See preface to the same, vol. i, p. 6. 



MRS. Sis. 1 .V.V. I BO WSON. 147 

Mrs. Rowson ever held the pupils entrusted to 
her care in affectionate remembrance, and continued 
in correspondence with many of them to the end 
of life. She delighted to learn of their prosperity 
and generously befriended them in adversity. Her 
letters to her pupils are models both in respect to 
elegance of language and tenderness of sentiment. 
Though far away from them, she was still their 
teacher and every epistle a new lesson. Here is 
one of them": 

Boston, Jau. 8, 1S08. 

I know ray dear M. you would hardly pardon me were I 
to permit your sister to return without a line. She has 
made a long visit in Boston, and has gratified me by passing 
a day or two here. I fear she has found our family very 
dull after the frequent pleasurable parties she has mixed 
with in town ; but if the time has seemed heavy to her, I 
must feel the more obliged to her for affording me so much 
of it. Your sister Myra is a very fine girl, and what is of 
more consequence, a very good one. She has been embar- 
goed at school by a wise papa and has submitted without a 
repining look or word. I do assure you she bids fair to 
become a ^reat favorite. 

I understand that you are about to discard the name of 
Montgomery and adopt another, which though not more 
valued, is still dearer to the affections from the strong and 
binding tie by which you will acquire it. I could write 
volumes on this subject, but I should say nothing new; nor 
anything but what your own good sense will naturally sug- 
gest. Allow me then simply to offer my best wishc3 for 
your happiness and to say that to hear of, or to witness it 



148 A MEMOIR OF 

will ever give me pleasure. When you visit Boston I hope 
you will pass a little time with me. My respects attend 
your mother and remembrances to all inquiring friends, and 
believe me ever yours in sincerity, 

S. Rowson. 

On the death of a sister of the above mentioned 
lady, Miss Juliana Knox, who had been Mrs. Row- 
son's pupil, she wrote the following beautiful elegiac 
lines : 

i. 
Peace to the heart that mourns, the eye that weeps, 
The lovely maiden is not dead, but sleeps. 
Where seraphs minister round Jehovah's throne, 
Her unembodied, spotless soul has flown ; 
And kindred angels tuned their golden lyres, 
Their bosoms glowing with celestial fires, 
To guide her through the doubtful, gloomy way, 
Safe to the realms of everlasting day ; 
Welcomed their sister to the house of rest. 
The bright, eternal mansions of the blest, 
There mixing with the bright celestial train, 
Exulting she will join the adoring strain, 
To Him who was, and is, 

And shall forever reign. 

II. 

Oh mother ! most afflicted, sure if e'er 

Maternal love was Heaven's peculiar care. 

Thy silent tears, thine agonizing sighs 

Before the great Eternal will arise. 

Cease then thy plaints, look up with faith, behold, 

They in the magic volume are enrolled ; 



MBS. SUSANNA ROWSON. 149 

Registered in the awful court of Heaven, 

Who only has recalled what it had given. 

Religion, smiling as she marks the page 

Cries, " Let this hope the mother's pangs assuage ; 

Though the unspotted angels went before. 

The hour will come when grief shall be no more ; 

Then shalt thou see those much loved forms again,' 

And join with them in the adoring strain, 

To Him who was, and is, 

And shall forever reign." - 

To another beloved pupil in sickness she tenderly 
wrote : 

My dear Hannah : 

I have just received a present of some fresh oranges and 
a box of guava. I send you a part of each and wish I could 
as easily send you health and spirits ; but that both these 
valuable gifts may speedily be enjoyed again by you is the 
ardent desire of yours affectionately, 

Susanna Rowson. 

Acrostic (to the same). 

Have you not seen the eastern sky 

Adorned with streaks of burnished gold, 

Now breaking gorgeous to the eye, 

Now with a sable cloud enrolled. 

And ere the sun could dart his burning ray, 

How vapors dank, obscured the face of day ? 



1 Mrs. Knox lust four children in two years, two of whom were 
grown ap. 

' Miscellaneous I'mmx. ]>. 141. 



150 A MEMOIR OF 

So joy oft gilds life's early scene, 
When, ere fair reason's sun has power, 
A somhre cloud will intervene, 
Nor pleasure gild the prospect more. 

Dear Hannah, may your morn as hrightly shine, 
And your meridian be 
From those dank vapors free 
Which overshadowed mine. 



On the death of Miss Eliza Bradley, another 
pupil, she wrote these touching lines : 



Fair as the lily of the vale, 

As sweet, as fragrant and as frail, 

The unoffending maid 
Just oped her beauties to the day, 
But ere 'twas noon she drooped away, 

Born just to bloom and fade. 

II. 

If there's a heaven beyond the sky. 
Where unpolluted spirits fly, 

Her's surely found the road. 
On seraph's wings pursued its way, 
Left its frail tenement of clay, 

And sought its parent God, 



MRS. SUSANNA R0W80N. 151 

The ensuing letter, written to Miss Louisa Bliss, 
a favorite pupil, discloses the author's political views 
and feelings at this eventful period : 

Boston, Jan. 8, 1808. 

Does not my dear Louisa accuse her friend of neglect? 
I must submit, though not actually guilty, for if my pen 
was silent, my thoughts have frequently reverted to you and 
often, very often do I speak of you. I enquire after you of 
every one who comes from Haverhill and trifles become of 
consequence if they concern Louisa Bliss. Mrs. Graupner 
is highly gratified with your polite mention of her. She 
begs me to present her respects to yourself and mother, and 
to say that if ever her fortune leads her again your way, 
she will certainly pay you a visit. What thinks your good 
father of the present times? Hard enough, no doubt; and 
so they are; nor is the present gloom of the political atmo- 
sphere half so alarming as the thick cloud which hovers in 
the horizon of domestic peace, since for foreign war an 
united nation may be prepared. And what foreign enemy 
could cope with the unanimous power of so mighty a nation 
as the American states ; were their commerce free and their 
forests converted into towers of defence to protect that com- 
merce from insult and invasion; were our citizens all of one 
mind ; were our statesmen wise and our lawgivers virtuous. 
But say the opposite party, if the spirit of commerce is so 
much encouraged, manufactures will languish and the handi- 
crafts be banished the laud. And indeed in some measure 
this is true ; but a country as young as this has never been 
known to arrive at any high pitch of excellence in the arts, 
whether social, or those of a higher class without the assist- 
ance of commerce. Few would be found in a situation able 
sufficiently to reward the ingenious artificer. It is therefore 



152 • A MEMOIR OF 

our part, I humbly conceive, at present, to profit by the 
great advantages an extensive commerce affords, and by de- 
grees the social arts will rise into estimation ; by degrees 
they will rise into perfection, and future ages will in all 
probability see new and as yet undiscovered countries re- 
ceiving the overplus of their manufactures coming to their 
seaports as to chief marts for merchandize, when the now 
imperial cities on the other side of the Atlantic, like Troy, 
Carthage, Greece and Rome, are sunk into insignificance. 
Nay, pass but a few centuries more and like Balbec, Pal- 
myra and Jerusalem, their places be only distinguished by 
a heap of ruins. These reflections, my Louisa, should per- 
haps lead us to be indifferent as to present circumstances, 
since every sublunary scene so rapidly fades from our view; 
but it has pleased the all wise Director of the universe to 
implant in our minds a patriotic principle which vibrates 
with delight in beholding, promoting or insuring the pro- 
sperity of our native land. For though I am by birth a 
Briton, my heart always clings to dear America, and it 
would be with equal anxiety I should contemplate the misery 
of either country. Power of all might, may the waves of 
thy ocean ever be the bulwark of revered old England, and 
may the good angels with peace dropping from their pinions 
hover over beloved America. Defend us from civil discord 
and let not her fertile plains be drenched with the blood of 
her brave sons, slaughtered by each other. You will be 
weary, my sweet young friend, with my serious political 
letter, but old folks will write and' talk of what is nearest 
the heart ; and when they once begin they kuow not where 
to stop. 

Will you pardon me for not returning your flower pieces. 
Miss Ann Montgomery and Miss Fiances Price have been 
copying them and have not quite finished them. I wish 
I knew of anything I have that would return the favor of 



MBS. SUSANNA BOWSON. 153 

having been allowed to keep them so long. If you can 
think of anything, mention it freely and it will give me 
pleasure to comply. Mr. Rowson joins me in most friendly 
remembrances to your parents. Give Caroline a kiss for 
me and teach your little sister to speak my name. Adieu, 
beloved Louisa. Rest assured of the affection of your friend. 

Susan Rowson. 



20 



154 A MEMOIR OF 



CHAPTER XV. 

"We are bound to do benefits." — Timon of Alliens, Act I. 

In the autumn of 1807 x Mrs. Rowson, in connec- 
tion with her sister-in-law, Mrs. Mary Cordis Has- 
well, opened her school in Washington street, near 
Roxbury in a commodious building now known as 
the Washington House ; employing Mr. Gotlieb 
Graupner as teacher of music and Mr. George Shaf- 
fer as dancing master. 2 The superior merits of 
the principal had now become well known through- 
out the whole country, and pupils from the north, 
east, south, and west, continued to gather round 
her to receive the living words of wisdom she so 
gracefully imparted. Other female schools were 
good, but hers was excellent; and happy was the 
young lady of that day who had the means to enter 
the old Washington House and mingle in the ani- 
mated throng that plied the busy needle, performed 
the literary task, or learned the music lesson in its 
pleasant halls and chambers. 3 



1 Mr. Knapp says erroneously in 1810. 

2 Old Doctor Shaffer, as they called him, was for along time 
known as second violin player in the Boston theatre. See Per- 
sonal Memoirs of J. T. BuckingJiam, vol. n, p. 52, note. 

:i Her annual exhibition subsequent to the transfer of her school 



MRS. SUSANNA ROWSON. 155 

Although generous by nature and educating 
several young ladies at her own expense, Mrs. Row- 
sou made so much money by her seminary that in 
December, 1809, Mr. Rowson, then a clerk in the 
custom house, had the means to purchase of Elisha 
Adams and John Foster, for the sum of $4,600, an 
eligible estate on Hollis street, nearly opposite the 
Hollis street church, where his wife established her 
school in 1811, placing her tuition at $12j>er quarter, 
and where she continued her labors as a teacher until 
compelled in 1822, regretfully to relinquish them 
for that repose which her declining health and age 
demanded. 

Soon after opening her school on Hollis street 
Mrs. Rowsou published (1811) her Present for Young 
Ladies, 1 containing poems, dialogues, etc., a little 
book of some two hundred pages, wherein many of 
those pieces recited by her pupils with so much eclat 
at her exhibitions, appeared. It proved of signal 
service to the principals of other kindred institutions 
and some of the dialogues are selected for the school 
examination still. They very gracefully rebuke the 



to the Washington House occurred Nov. 1'.), lsor. The tickets of 

admission were fifty cents. The Spring term of the next year be 

ganon tin- 1Hli of April. Mrs.Haswell ami Messrs. Graupner and 
Shaffer continuing with her. The annual exhibition took place at 
the academy, November ID; the price of admission being the same. 
1 Ante, p. 1 13, note. 



156 A MEMOIR OF 

improprieties and frivolities of girlhood, and point 
ingeniously to the rewards of virtue and obedience. 
They also, as faithful mirrors, reflect the spirit, 
order, life and animation of the author's school room. 

Dialogue — Mary and Lucretia. 

Mary. 
Do stop, Miss Lucretia, pray why in such haste, 
And where in the world are you running so fast ? 

Lucretia. 
Pray, Miss, don't detain rue, I'm going to school, 
And our governess long has established a rule : 
She who for three months the most neatly is dressed, 
Comes the soonest to school, says her lesson the best, 
Shall receive from her hand the reward of a book, 
And what's more, a kind word, an affectionate look. 
For ten weeks I've been there e'er the bell has struck nine, 
And in one fortnight more the dear prize will be mine. 

Mary. 
Well dear, 'twas but eight a few minutes ago, 
To stop just a moment, you've time enough now. 
What's the prize of a book ? such nonsensical stuff. 
If I want new books aunt can give me enough. 
I abominate reading, it makes one so dumpish. 
And as to our governess ; la, she's so frumpish. 
" Miss, do mind your work, do, child, sit upright. 
Miss, your frock is unpinned ; dear, how badly you write." 
Then if I am late she cries : " Miss how you stay; 
I believe in my heart you love nothing but play." 
Love play ! to be sure I do, so do you all, 
Yes, it's truth ; the great misses as well as the small. 



MB8. SUSANNA BOWSOF. 157 

Some primitive miss may protest that she don't, 
And you may believe, if you please, but I wont. 

Lucretia. 
Dear me, how you talk, child, I'm really amazed ; 
Such a parcel of stuff, I believe you are crazed. 
Pray what do you think our dear friends would all do, 
If all little girls were as giddy as you ? 
I own 1 love play ; yes, none more admires it ; 
Yet I cheerfully work when my dear aunt requires it. 
I make all the linen for her and my brother ; 
Indeed I should blush were they made by another. 
To assist in the household concerns I arise 
With the sun ; nay, I sometimes make puddings and pies, 
See the sheets and the tablecloths kept in repair, 
Help wash, rinse and starch when the weather is fair ; 
For we heard my aunt say : " Who lead indolent lives 
Are indifferent daughters and make wretched wives." 

Mary. 
Wives ! well, 'twere worth while to be married indeed, 
Were one forced to do nothing but work, write and read. 
Why, dear, when one's married the principal merit 
Is dancing with elegance, betting with spirit, 
At whist or at loo; Mrs. Giddy makes light 
If she only should lose fifty dollars a night, 
And Miss Tattle told me a lady she knew 
Made nothing of losing a hundred or two; 
And d'ye think when I'm married that I'll be confined, 
At home to make pies, or the servants to mind ? 
No, child, I shall marry to live at my ease, . 
Eat, drink, dance and dress, and do just as I please ; 
But la, we're fine folks to be prating away 
About marriage indeed, come, let's go to play. 



158 A MEMOIR OF 

Lucretia. 
Play ! no, my dear Mary, though I did not choose 
To hasten to school, I should surely refuse, 
To spend my time idly ; for I have to make 
Full fifty new garments for charity's sake ; 
For, dear, do you know many children there be, 
As good, nay, perhaps who are better than we, 
Without any home where to shelter their head, 
Without clothes, without fire, sometimes without bread ? 

Mary. 
Dear me, is that true ? now indeed I'm ashamed ; 
But I hope I am not very much to be blamed ; 
Though yesterday morning I gave half a dollar 
To buy little Pompey a pretty new collar. 
And had I but known some poor child as you say 
Might be hungry, I would not have thrown it away ; 
But, see here, the last week when my aunt was in town, 
She gave me to keep for her sake this French crown. 
She bade me be sure and not foolishly spend it ; 
But I'm certain she did not forbid me to lend it ; 
T'will buy them some linen, Lucretia, do take it, 
You buy it, and though I hate work, I'll help make it. 

Lucretia. 
How good you are, Mary, I blush when I see 
In virtue you rise thus superior to me. 
The prize of true merit is surely your due ; 
And certain I am if our governess knew 
How much you deserved it, she'd give it to you. 

Mary. 
No, no, it is yours for my merit is small, 
And compared with Lucretia 'tis nothing at all. 
My flippancy henceforth I'll strive to correct, 
And to be like yourself, free from every defect. 



MRS. SUSANNA ROWSON. 159 

Lucretia. 
And I thy benevolent spirit will join 
To the little industrious spirit of mine, 
To be good as I can I'll exert my best power. 

Mary. 

When I've nothing to give, why I'll work for the poor. 

Exeunt. 

Aside from the arduous duties of the school room, 
Mrs. Rowson found time to visit and console the 
widow and the fatherless, to mingle in the brilliant 
scenes of social life, and to furnish contributions 
both in prose and poetry for the Boston press. 

On the proclamation of peace at the close of the 
war in 1815, her house on Hollis street was most 
brilliantly illuminated with transparencies and ap- 
propriate mottoes; indicating the joy of her heart 
at the reconciliation between the imperious mother 
and her unconquerable daughter. Of her interest 
in the dissemination of the gospel, her catholicity 
of spirit and of her unwearied literary labor, the 
ensuing letter to one of her early pupils, furnishes 
pleasing evidence : 

Hollis Street, Boston, Aug. 1], 1S1G. 
Dear Hannah : ' 

I fear you think nie very negligent, and in some degree 
I plead guilty to the charge; but perhaps you yourself have 



'.Miss Hannah Swan, of Medford. 



160 A MEMOIR OF 

experienced that what may be done at any time is perhaps 
seldom done at all. This has been the case in regard to the 
ode and hymn I promised to send you. I will thank you 
to return the former as I have not another copy ; the latter 
is much at your service. It was written for the first anni- 
versary of the Prayer Book and Tract Society, established 
in Boston, for sending prayer books and religious tracts to 
the new settlements in the district of Maine. Perhaps you 
may think that we are laboring to disseminate the tracts of 
the Episcopal church ; but that is not the chief aim. The 
prayer book contains excellent extracts from the New Testa- 
ment, the Psalms, both in prose and verse, excellent prayers 
for all occasions, and a very comprehensive, plain catechism. 
These may be of service to assist the unenlightened and 
ignorant; and though, my dear Hannah, there are some 
tenets which I hold peculiarly sacred, yet I am no bigot to 
any party, or sect. I am so sensible of my own blindness and 
infirmity that I can only pray in the words of Pope : 

" If I am right, assist me still, 
In that best path to stray. 
If I am wrong, oh ! teach rae how 
To find the better way." 

I send you the life of Prey, the converted Jew, which you 
will please to send to Mrs. Gilchrist when you have perused 
it. I hope my dear Ann is better, and that you are all en- 
joying a desirable portion of health and spirits. My affec- 
tionate remembrance to my beloved friends, Susan, Peggy 
and your dear self. Yours with esteem, 

Susanna Rowson. 



MBS. SUSANNA BOWSON. 161 



CHAPTER XVI. 

M, se sentant animee par V amour de son pay a, elle sefit entendre 
dans des vers pleins de charme. — Corrinne, Chapitre in. 

Of the NewEnqland Galaxy, commenced in 1817, 

Mrs. Rowson became, in the words of its editor, 1 

" an acceptable and highly valued correspondent " ; 

her contributions were chiefly of a religious and 

devotional character 1 and usually signed with her 

initials S. R. 2 In looking over the files of this ably 

conducted journal, I find several communications 



1 In an article in the Galaxy, February G, 1818, the writer justly 
says : Mrs. Rowson, author of Charlotte Temple and numerous 
other works, much read and admired, is a writer of no ordinary 
mind. To advance knowledge, excite virtue and cherish philan- 
thropy, have been her objects and her aim. With powers to make 
herself distinguished, she has been content to be useful. If she 
has lost any portion of that world of fame which was within her 
reach, it has not been by reclining in idleness, or running after the 
golden apples ; but in tarrying to cultivate the delicate flowers and 
savory herbs in the garden of youthful intellect, in teaching that 
the highest knowledge is goodness and the purest fame is virtue. 
Her pen has never been employed but to give elevation to senti- 
ment, chastity to feeling, dignity to argument, and to make religion 
lovely and alluring to the young and gay. Her muse of vigorous 
wing and purest flame has been satisfied in decking the cradle of 
affection or the bier of friendship, in wreathing the garland for the 
tomb of hhe patriot and pouring her sweetest incense on the altar 
of devotion. Truly it may be said of her that she has written 
•• No line which dying she could wish to blot." 

"See Personal Memoirs by ./. '/'. Buckingham, vol. i. p.83, where 

an interesting sketch of Mrs. Rowson's lite is given. 
21 



3 62 A MEMOIR OF 

under the well known signature, which are alike 
creditable to the author's head and heart. The fol- 
lowing beautiful ode to the memory of John "War- 
ren, M. D., appears in the issue of Feb. 13, 1818. 
It was written at the request of the Grand Lodge 
of Massachusetts and sung in Concert Hall immedi- 
ately after the oration by W. J. Bartlett, Esq : 

Recitative. 

Be wreaths of glory for the hero's name ; 

August his deeds and sacred be his fame ; 

But flowers of rich perfume shall deck the grave 

Of him who lived to succor and to save. 

And Cassia's blossoms twine with Sharon's rose 

Where our dear brother's relics now repose. 

Air. 

I. 

Thy Memory, Warren, will ever be dear, 

Whilst any the sense of thy virtue retains, 
Fraternal affection with gratitude's tear, 

Shall blend on the marble that shrouds thy remains. 
For bright as the arch that through heaven extends, 

Was the genius that flashed from thy luminous mind, 
And soft as the dew od the dry earth descends. 

Was the pity that led thee to succor mankind. 

II. 

How sweet was the voice that instructed our youth ! 

What wisdom, what science that voice could impart, 
How bright was that face where the radiance of truth, 

Beamed over each feature, direct from the heart ! 



MBS. SUSANNA ROWSOW. 163 

Let sorrow each ensign of glory enshroud, 

[When Sol is eclipsed we his presence deplore] 

For sad is the hour, dark, sombre the cloud, — 

Warren's voice will be heard and his face seen no more. 

in. 
Then build the fair cenotapb, true to each block, 

That raises the column his fame to record, 
And ! may that column of time bear the shock ; 

Upright as his actions, and firm as his word. 
But where is the man on this sublunar ball, 

The jewels of honor so worthy to wear ? 
Since our brother obeyed the Great Architect's call, 

And the bright gem of Hope is bedimmed with a tear. 

Chorus. 

Who shall, sweet Hope, on thee rely, 
Who lift the full confiding eye, 
Who, resting on thy promise, die, 

If not the just? 
Freed from a world of care and pain, 
His body shall in rest remain, 
Till the Great Master's voice again, 

Shall animate his dust. 

Full Chorus. 

See Religion's sacred ray 
Chase the cloud of grief away, 
While welcomed by the eternal eye 
Our Warren's spirit mounts the sky. 

S. It. 

In the issue of May 15, of the same year, appears 
a scriptural piece, which, as it is believed to be the 



164 A MEMOIR OF 

only one of the kind which Mrs. Rowson wrote, and 
possesses considerable poetic merit, I venture to 
transcribe. It is entitled 

The "Wedding Supper. [Matt. 22.] 

i. 

The marriage supper was prepared ; 

The king invited many a guest ; 
Nor Jew, nor Pagan was forbade 

To enter and partake the feast. 

II. 

The king provided wedding robes 

Which all who asked, might have to wear. 

The hour arrived ; the supper served, 
But no invited guest was there. 

in. 

" Go," said the king, " through streets and lanes, 
And see who wants refreshment most. 

Bid them come in ; I should be grieved 
If this my wedding feast were lost. 

IV. 
" Press them to come ; they need not mind 

How mean and poor their garments are, 
I shall for all who willing come 

A spotless wedding robe prepare." 

v. 

Now from all parts, the sick, the lame, 

Dressed in new garments thronged the board, 

Bounteous their fare and light their hearts ; 
Gracious their condescending Lord. 



MRS. SUSANNA ROWSON. 165 

VI. 
But one there was who full of self, 

Too proud the Prince's robe to wear, 
Thought his own garments good enough : 

" Friend," said the prince, " how earnest thou here ? 

VII. 

" Didst thou not know that every guest 
Should in a wedding garment shine ? 

Thou mightst have had one hadst thou asked 
Without the least expense of thine." 

VIII. 

Aghast he stood, for he had thought 
By outward garments decked with pride 

From the king's penetrating eye, 
His inward filth and rags to hide. 

IX. 

" Go, bear him forth ! " ! gracious Lord, 

Thy sentence dare I not repeat, 
I feel like him I want the robe 

When at the board I take my seat. 

x. 

Naked, a beggar here I come, 

To crave admission to thy feast ; 

Clothe me in thy own righteousness 

And I shall be a welcome guest. 

S. R. 



In the number for June 19th, I find a hymn com- 
bining strength and beauty and which seems worthy 
of a place in our collections of psalmody : 



166 A MEMOIR OF 

The Mighty Lord. 

i. 

Who that beholds the billows rise 
In foaming mountains to the skies, 
Or marks the ship in safety brave 
Their fury and surmount the wave, 
Or views them late in terrors drest, 
Sinking in murmurs soft to rest, 
And doubts but there's a mighty Lord 
Who rules the ocean by his word ! 

II. 
Ah ! who can see the glorious sun 
His daily race of splendor run ; 
Or trace the planets in their spheres, 
In which they've rolled for thousand years ; 
See man, chief wonder of the whole 
With power of speech and reasoning soul ; 
And doubt but there's a migbty Lord 
Who rules creation by his word ! 

ill. 

Who that observeth genial spring, 
Its yearly wreaths and blossoms bring, 
Or summer bland with tempered heat, 
Laden with sheaves of golden wheat ; 
Or gather in rich autumn's spoil 
Of corn and fruit and wine and oil, 
And doubt but there's a mighty Lord 
Who feeds his creatures by his word ! 



MBS. SUSANNA BOWSON 1C7 

IV. 

Yes ! mighty Lord, thou God alone, 
Who in the person of thy son, 
'Twixt wrath diviue in mercy stood, 
And rausomed sinners with thy blood, 
Ah ! who can know such boundless love, 
And not thy faithful servant prove, 
Or feel they want such wondrous grace 
But in the dust must hide their face ? 

S. K. 

For the 4th of July of that year, Mrs. Rowson 
wrote a stirring, patriotic ode which was raptur- 
ously sung to an air composed by Dr. Samuel Ar- 
nold, author of that of Anacreon in Heaven, or the 
Star Spangled Banner. 

i. 

Strike, strike the chord, raise, raise the strain, 
Let joy reecho round each plain, 

Your banners be unfurled ; 
Hail, hail the day, when deathless fame 
Gave to Columbia rank and name 
Amid the astonished world. 

The muses match their lyres sublime, 

To publish Jove's decree, 
Columbia to the end of time, \ 
Shall nourish great and free. 

11. 

Hail, hail the day when hand in hand, 
Patriots and heroes, glorious band, 



168 A MEMOIR OF 

Breathed forth a solemn vow, 
Freedom to purchase, or to die, 
While Jove's own bird with flaming eye 
Perched on their chieftain's brow. 
Bellona's martial clarions sound, 

To publish Jove's decree, 
Columbia shall to-day be crowned, 
A nation great and free. 



in. 
Hark, hark, the woodlands catch the strain, 
Pan and his sylvans beat the plain, 

In wild, fantastic round, 
While from the rustic grots and bowers, 
The virgin train fling odorous flowers, 
And cheerful rebecks sound. 

Chaste Dian's nymphs with tuneful horn, 

Beecho Jove's decree. 
A nation has this day been born : 
Columbia, great and free. 

IV. 
O'er her primeval martyrs' grave 
Let freedom's banners proudly wave : 

Immortal be their names. 
Sound, sound the charge, let cannon roar 
From hill to hill, from shore to shore, 
To celebrate their fame. 

Old Neptune bids his tritons sound 

Jove's mandate o'er the sea; 
Columbia must e'en here be crowned 
Victorious, great and free. 



MBS. SUSANNA BOWSON. 169 



CHAPTER XVII. 

" But the greatest of these is charity." — St. Paul. 

Among those branches of learning which Mrs. 
Rowson loved to teach, geography was perhaps the 
most conspicuous. Her organ of locality, as the phre- 
nologist would say, was prominent, and led her to 
associate events with places. Her lively imagina- 
tion delighted to explore the distant regions of the 
globe, to traverse the seas, to climb the mountains, 
examine the natural curiosities, and mark the man- 
ners of the people. With her fine descriptive 
powers, she presented the results of her own re- 
searches vividly to her pupils. Mastering herself 
the science, aud throwing her own enkindling spirit 
into it, she taught it with ever fresh delight, and her 
scholars found it, not that dry and barren field which 
modern systems and inferior teachers render it, 
but a delightful garden teeming with rarest flowers 
and golden fruits. One of her methods of teaching 
this charming study was to make an occasional tour 
with her pupils, noticing things remarkable as they 
went, entirely round the globe. These entertaining 

voyages she prepared for the press in 1818, and 
22 



170 A MEMOIR OF 

published them under the title of Youth's First Steps 
in Geography, being a series of exercises making the 
tour of the habitable globe. The style is clear as 
crystal ; the subject matter admirably selected and 
arranged, so as to engage the attention to the end. 
The method is sensible, and still, to some extent, 
prevails. 

The advertisement of the school for the spring 
term of 1819, indicates the studies then pursued. 
Music and dancing, owing perhaps to the teacher's 
declining years, are no longer introduced. 

" Mrs. Rowson's academy, Hollis street, near the meeting 
house. Mrs. Rowson begs leave to inform her friends and 
the public in general that her spring term commences on 
Monday the 5th of April next. Terms of admission are, 
for reading, writing, arithmetic, English grammar, geo- 
graphy, composition, plain work, marking, etc., etc., per quar- 
ter, $8. Any or all the above, together with painting 
landscapes, figures and flowers, embroidery and print work, 
$12. Use of books, pens and ink, fifty cents. Children 
under eight years of age, $6. Two young ladies can be 
admitted to board in the family. A young lady who has 
been studying sometime with Mrs. Rowson, wishes a situa- 
tion as an assistant in an academy." 1 

In the autumn of 1820, Mrs. Rowson wrote an 
ode remarkable for elevation, tenderness and beauty 
of thought and diction, for the anniversary of the 



] S.t New England Galaxy, April 2, 1819. 



MRS. SUSANNA ROWSON. 171 

Fatherless and Widow's Society, 1 of which she 
herself was the honored president. The music 
was composed by her friend, Mr. John Bray. 2 The 
meeting took place in Boj'lston Hall, Oct. 11, when 
after an eloquent oration by Edward Everett, the 
Handel and Haydn Society sang with fine effect the 
original piece prepared by the best talent then in 
Boston for the occasion. The ode is appropriately 
entitled : 

Charity. 

Recitative. 
Touch the soft chord, the tuneful notes prolong, 
To Heaven-born Charity we raise the song. 
Oh ! white-robed seraph, quit the realms above, 
Led by thy sisters, Faith and Heavenly Love. 
Teach us such aid and comfort to impart, 
As soothes the suffering, heals the broken heart; 



1 The Boston Fatherless and Widow's Society was instituted in 
1817, and incorporated, in 1837. Its noble and praiseworthy de- 
sign is to search out objects of charity and to assist them with 
fuel, garments and stores. Old and infirm widows and very young 
children arc tlic first to receive attention. Tin' first president was 
Mrs. Sophia O. Lincoln. Mrs. Rowson was the second, or third. 
She was also a life member, and most earnestly devoted her time, 
talents, and money to the promotion of ifs growth and elliciency. 
set experience sh< realized that " it is more blessed to give 
than to receive." The n umber of members in lS'JO, was three 
hundred and eighty-one. The society is still accomplishing an in- 
calculable amount of good under tin- presidency of Mrs. James P. 
Baldwin. 

* Mr. John Bray, comedian and composer, was born in Leeds. 
England, dune 19, 1782, and was bred a merchant. Becoming 



172 A MEMOIR OF 

And may our souls in grateful thanks arise 
Like incense at the hour of sacrifi.ee. 



The brightest of gems is humanity's tear, 
The heart's purest offering is brotherly love, 

And the hand which dispenses its benefits here, 
Lays up a rich treasure in mansions above. 

II. 

Sarepta's lorn widow, though famine was near, 
Yet shared with the prophet her last poor regale, 

For she trusted the voice of the heaven-taught seer, 

That her oil should not waste, that her meal should not fail. 



ill. 

The poor widow's mite in the treasury cast, 

Was more than high gifts from the Pharisee's hoard, 

She cast it in cheerfully, though 'twas her last, 

And obtained, blessed meed, the applause of her Lord. 



interested in private theatricals, he was finally induced to try his 
fortune on the stage. He came to this country with a corps of 
theatrical performers under Warren, in 1805, married Miss Sarah 
Sophia Hunt of Philadelphia, in 1808, and settled in Boston, 1815, 
where he was long known as a favorite comic actor and skillful 
composer. He understood both French and Latin, and translated 
Who Pays the Piper and other plays from the former language 
into English, for the stage. He is the author of the Toothache, 
a farce ; the Astrologer, the Simpleton, Child of the Mountain, etc. 
He was a good performer on the piano, and among his most merito- 



MRS. SUSANNA ROWSON 173 

Recitative. 

For he hath said whose word unchanged remains, 
Who for my sake shall set the prisoner free, 

Who clothes the naked, soothes the sufferer's pains, 

At my right hand eternal life obtains ; 

For what was done for them was done for me. 



Air. 



Ye daughters of affluence open your stores, 
'Tis the widow entreats ; 'tis the orphan implores. 
The husband, the father lies cold in the grave; 
But your pity may comfort, your charity save. 

II. 

Aud when the storm rages, the piercing wind blows ; 
And when on your pillows you seek for repose; 
The angel of mercy that reigns in your breast 
With sweet recollection shall lull you to rest. 



rious musical compositions may be mentioned, Ode on Washington, 
Glory of Columbia, Maid of the Mitt, The Rose, Hunter of the Alps, 
mid Child of Mortality, to words by Mrs. Rowson, in 1821. On 
entering the ballot' the Handel and Haydn Society (of which he 
was a member) just previous to his final departure for Europe, that 
body rose to receive him, and performed with great effed his Child 
of Mortality in testimony of its admiration of bis genius. It was 
bis requiem. Repairing to Leeds, bis native place, for health, be 
died there on bis birthday, June 19, 1822, and bis fine musical 
library was accidentally destroyed. His death is noticed kindly in 
tbe Christian Register for August 9,1822. The names of his child- 
ren are: 1, John Francis; 2, Emma Sophia; 3, Frances Anne; 4. 
Henry; 5, Charles, m. Miss Eliza Davenport, and is a mercbant, 
145 Milk street, Boston ; 6, Edgar; 7, Edwin. 



174 A MEMOIR OF 

Trio. 

Hail ! hail ! sweet cherub Charity, 

Thou first of virtues, hail ! 
For thou canst blend in misery's cup, 
The balmy, cheering cordial, Hope, 
When other comforts fail. 

And thou, meek-eyed Humility 

Instruct us all to own 

Our noblest efforts weak must be, 

And we're deficient when the best is done. 



Full Chorus. 

Great God of love and light and day 
We humbly here our offering lay, 

Before the footstool of thy throne. 
All that we have, Lord is thine, 
And should we all to thee resign 

We only render back thy own. 
To soothe and mitigate distress 

make us ever free. 
And may our hearts in holiness, 

The glory give to thee. 1 



In the New England Galaxy for December 22, 1820, 
we are informed that " The following song by Mrs. 



1 For this fine poem and the celebration, see the Centiiicl of that 
day. 



MSB. SUSANNA ROWSON. 175 

Rowson, set to music by Mr. John Bray, was sung 
at the Oratorio on Tuesday evening (Dec. 19), by 
Master Ayling, a lad of about twelve years of age." 



When the cloud has passed away 

The sacred bow adorns the sky • 
And rich on every flower and spray, 

Hang sparkling gems of varied dye. 

11. 

Then gazing on the blue serene, 

The soul elated soars above, 
Beholds the Author in the scene, 

Soothed into peace and holy love. 

in. 

Dying, fading in the west, 

Lost is the sun's declining beam ; 

While from the east in splendor drest, 
The moon pours radiance on the stream. 

IV. 
And gentle zephyrs, sportive, light, 

Just sighing, whisp'ring, through the grove, 
Put each unhallowed thought to flight, 

And soothe to peace and holy love. 



The most celebrated sacred lyrical composition 
of this lady, however, is her Child of Mortality writ- 
ten, also, for an anthem, by Mr. John Bray. It 



176 A MEMOIU OF 

were not easy to find, I think, in the whole range 
of devotional poetry, so many weighty thoughts 
compressed into a form so solid and compact, and 
at the same time clothed in language so vivacious 
and dramatic. The theme is one, the unity is per- 
fect; — the origin of man, his mortal life, his 
resurrection, the way to heavenly rest, the pleasures 
that await him there and the ascription of the praise 
to God, are all logically welded together and 
cemented in the glowing imagination of the author, 
who thus in four brief stanzas presents, as it were, 
the very sum and substance of the glorious doctrines 
of Christianity. It is delightful to see this noble 
woman's muse, as the shadows of evening begin to 
fall, assuming a loftier flight and fondly anticipat- 
ing the brightness of the celestial morning. 



Child of Mortality. 1 

[By Susanna Rowson. Set to music by John Bray.] 

I. 

Child of mortality, whence dost thou come ? 
From the dark womb of earth 
I first derived my birth, 
And when the word goes forth, 
That is my home. 



1 For the words and music, see the Modern Harp, by Edward L. 
White and John E. Gould, p. 303. 



MRS SUSANNA ROWSON 177 

II. 

Child of a transient day, there shalt thou rest ? 
No ! when this dream is o'er, 
Then the freed soul will soar 
To where sorrow comes no more j 
Realms of the blest. 

in. 

Heir of eternity, teach me the road. 
Trust a Redeemer's love ; 
Faith by obedience prove ; 
And share in courts above 
Christ's own abode. 

IV. 

There in etherial plains, 
Join the angelic strains ; 
Jesus forever reigns ; 
Glory to God. 



23 



178 A MEMOIR OF 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

" She possessed an exact and accurate knowledge of the scrip- 
tures, and had committed to memory most of the striking passages 
in them." — Hannah More, Hints, p. 18. 

la the spring of 1822, Mrs. Rowson, finding her- 
self in impaired health and the infirmities of age 
increasing, committed her beloved school into the 
hands of her adopted daughter, Miss Fanny M. 
Mills, 1 and her niece, Miss Susan R. Johnston, 
both of whom she had educated in her family ; and 
devoted her remaining days and strength to the 
completion of her literary undertakings. Her last 
advertisement is characteristic, evincing alike her 



1 She was the daughter of Mr. John Mills, of England, who was 
educated as a lawyer, but left his profession for the stage. He 
was a man of genius, a scholar and a poet, and obtained considera- 
ble reputation as an actor. His daughter was placed when about 
six years old, at Mrs. Rowson's academy, who, on the death of Mr. 
Mills, adopted her and educated her as her own daughter. Her 
generosity was well repaid in the rapid progress Miss Mills made 
in the useful and elegant branches of education, and in the affec- 
tionate regard she ever bore towards her benefactress. Miss Mills 
married for her first husband, Mr. George Lord, a merchant of 
Boston, by whom she had Georgiana, who married Mr. Hall of 
New York, and then Dr. Richard S. Spofford, of Newburyport, by 
whom she has Richard S., who married the talented Miss Harriet 
Prescott, and now resides in Newburyport. The fortunes of the 
Mills family are, to some extent, given in the novel entitled Aunt 
Margaret's Secret. 



MBS. SUSANJVA BOWSON. 179 

sense of declining years and a grateful apprecia- 
tion of the patronage she had so long received. , It 
appears in the Centinel for April 3d, 1822 : 

"Young Ladies' Academy, Hollis street. Mrs. Rowson, 
grateful for the patronage she has enjoyed from the inhabit- 
ants of the state of Massachusetts and particularly of Boston, 
and vicinity, during nearly twenty-five years, while she has 
been occupied in the instruction of female youth, begs leave 
thus publicly to make her heartfelt acknowledgments. Ad- 
vanced into the vale of years and infirm in health, she must, 
however painful to her feelings, relinquish her duties in the 
school, and presumes to solicit that the same kindness and 
patronage may be extended to her adopted daughter, Miss 
Mills, and her niece, Miss Johnston, both having received 
their education in her family, the former for twelve years 
past, and the latter nearly three. Mrs. liowson pledges 
herself that their qualifications, tempers aud principles are 
such as she shall ever feel a pride in having formed, and 
such as she trusts will ever be honored with the perfect 
confidence of those parents who may entrust their children 
to their care. Miss Mills and Miss Johnston propose to 
commence the school on Monday, April 15th. Mrs. Row- 
son will always attend to the composition herself. She 
also begs leave to mention that she shall be happy to accom- 
modate two or three young ladies with board at a very 
moderate rate; where they may, it" the parents wish it, be 
attended with a music instructor. An excellent piano-forte 
is in the house, of which they can have the use for $2 per 
quarter. Every attention will be paid by Mrs. liowson to 
the comfort, health and manners of the young ladies com- 
mitted to her care." 



180 A MEMOIR OF 

It had been the invariable custom of this eminent 
teacher to make the Bible a text book in her school, and 
to explain with sedulous care its sacred pages to her 
pupils. She resolved, if possible, to lead them to 
appreciate its excellence and to impress its solemn 
sanctions on their ductile minds. To this end she 
not only read and interpreted the precious volume, 
but actually committed to writing for them, a con- 
tinuous history of the most remarkable incidents 
and events therein related. This elaborate work 
which must have cost her years of study and re- 
search, she committed to the press in February, 
1822. It is written in the form of a colloquy be- 
tween Mr. and Mrs. Alworth and their children, and 
bears the following title : 

Biblical Dialogues between a Father and his Family : 
Comprising Sacred History from the Creation to the 
Death of oar Saviour Christ. The Lives of the Apostles 
and the Promulgation of the Gospel; with a Sketch of 
the History of the Church down to the Reformation. 
The whole carried on in conjunction with Profane His- 
tory. In two volumes. By Susanna Bowson. 1 



1 Boston : Richardson & Lord, 1822, pp. 416 and 395. This is 
the dedication : " To the Right Rev. Alexander V. (Jriswold, D.D., 
Bishop of the Eastern Diocese, whose learning, piety and Christian 
urbanity have rendered him universally beloved and respected, this 
work is inscribed with sentiments of the highest deference, venera- 
tion and esteem by the author. 

Susanna Rowson. 



MBS SUSANNA BOWSON. 181 

With admirable tact and skill, she brings by the 
aid of the writings of the learned Prideaux, Poole, 
Stackhouse, Schuckford and Calmet, the light of 
profane, to illumine the obscure passages of sacred 
history, and ably meets the cavils and objections of 
the infidel. Taking her listeners gently by the 
hand, she leads them pleasantly along through the 
labyrinths of biblical history ; always telling the 
"good old story" gracefully, and sustaining her 
narrative by apt and appropriate references to geo- 
graphy and chronology. Her style is easy, flow- 
ing, natural ; her language, elevated, as the subject 
justly claims. In her preface she gives this interest- 
ing account of her own personal experience in study- 
ing and teaching Holy Writ. 

" To trace all moral and religious truth up to its 
divine source, it is necessary that children should 
be taught, not only to read, but to understand the 
Bible. To teach them to read it was an easy task ; 
but to make them understand it, associate ideas, to 
connect the events related, the persons mentioned, 
the places where those events happened and where 
those persons lived with the same events, persons 
and places mentioned in profane history, was an 
herculean labor. I perfectly remembered the time 
when to my own uninformed mind the world of the 
Bible and the world of which I felt myself an in- 



1»2 A MEMOIR OF 

habitant were two distinct worlds. As I advanced 
in life, a naturally inquiring disposition, assisted by 
some learned and judicious friends and an insatiable 
love of reading, began to open my understanding; 
and though I could not comprehend the highly 
figurative language of the prophets, or more sub- 
lime parts of the inspired writings, yet I began to 
perceive the connection between the Old and New 
Testaments, and in a slight degree between sacred 
and profane history, and as I happily had a step- 
mother (a New England lady) who whenever I did 
wrong made me judge of the rectitude of the action 
by referring me to the commandments delivered 
from Sinai, or our Lord's sermon on the mount, I 
was early accustomed to make the Bible my study 
and guide. When I became engaged in the mo- 
mentous business of instructing females of the rising 
generation, whose future conduct as wives and 
mothers was to stamp the moral and religious cha- 
racter and ensure in a great measure the virtue and 
consequent happiness of another age, I could not 
but feel the great responsibility of the undertaking. 
My whole soul was engaged in my duties ; ray 
pupils became to me as my children, and few things 
were of consequence to me that did not contribute 
to their improvement, their present and eternal 
happiness. The Bible was read in classes, always 



MRS. SUSANNA ROWSON. 183 

once, and sometimes twice a week ; but some read 
with perfect indifference, some, though they ap- 
peared to wish to understand, were confused and 
bewildered in their ideas, and if any time I wished 
to render it plain to their unsophisticated minds, I 
felt my own inefficiency so powerfully that I had 
almost despaired of success, when chance threw in 
my way Camp's Dialogues on the Faculties of the Soul, 
and the History of Cortez and Pizarro, by the same 
author, in conversations between a father and his 
children. I introduced these books into my school, 
and found that the children became interested in 
the recitals and read them with avidity. The 
thought then struck me that if something of the 
same kind could be produced from the history of 
the Bible it might be of infinite benefit to the young, 
the ignorant or weak minded, who having neither 
time nor perseverance to investigate, nor judgment 
to discriminate, were easily led astray by the cavils 
of affected philosophy, or the jeering taunts of ridi- 
cule." 

A single extract from the body of the work will 
serve as a spocimen of the felicitous manner in 
which the whole is executed. 



184 A MEMOIR OF 



The Extent of the Deluge. The World not 
Formed by Chance. 

James. Do you think, sir, the efi'ects of this deluge were 
felt equally in every part of the globe ; that the whole earth 
was inundated ? 

Father. There is no doubt of it : inquire of the inhabit- 
ants of every climate ; we shall find that the fame of the 
deluge has gone through the whole earth. Every nation 
has some record or tradition of it. The Indians in America 
acknowledge and speak of it in various parts of the continent. 
The Chinese, who are the most distant people in Asia, have 
a tradition concerning it. The natives of Africa tell various 
stories of its efi'ects ; and in the European parts there is a 
tradition of a flood which agrees with the account of the 
flood given by Moses ; only a little disguised by fable ; 
which in a greater or less degree pervades all the early 
histories of the heathen or pagan writers. Moses assures us 
that the waters prevailed fifteen cubits above the tops of the 
highest mountains; and the mountains existing at this day 
in every quarter of the globe, are a sufficient testimony to 
the truth of the assertion. The Alps, the Apennines, the 
Pyrenees, the Andes, Atlas and Ararat, every mountain in 
every region from Japan to Mexico, contains in its bowels 
the spoils of the ocean ; beds of shells, petrified bones, teeth 
of fish and sea monsters of every kind. The whole universe 
aflbrds incontestible evidence of the fact. Skeletons of ani- 
mals are found in countries where that kind of animal has 
never been known to exist ; crocodiles in the heart of Ger- 
many, and what is more, trees and plants of various kinds 
have been thus preserved in the centre of the earth, which 
are not now known to grow in any region under heaven. 



MBS. SUSANNA BOWSOW. 185 

Charles. What folly then it is for people to say that the 
world was made by chance. Could chance do this ? 

Father. Folly indeed ; its folly can only be exceeded by 
its wickedness. When you behold the course of a ship upon 
the water, do you not conclude that it is directed by art ? 
Were the noblest ship launched upon the ocean and left to 
chance, would it not become the sport of the waves and 
wind ; and having been tossed about in every contrary direc- 
tion be at length dashed upon the rocks, or engulfed in the 
unfathomable abyss of the waters ? Can you contemplate a 
clock or watch and not acknowledge that it is the work of a 
skillful artist ? It points the hour, it strikes the number 
upon the bell and performs many other extraordinary things ; 
but omit to wind it up at the appointed time ; it is still, it 
is silent, it is useless. Would you not pronounce that man 
stupid and devoid of reason who should assert that this 
wonderful little machine was formed by chance, went by 
chance, that it stopped by chance, and by chance may go 
again ? 

Horatio. Sir, no one but a perfect idiot could make such 
an assertion. 

Father. How much more stupid is it then for any one 
to assert and endeavor to persuade others that this most 
beautiful world, those glorious planets which roll above us, 
and which for nearly six thousand years have performed 
their allotted course uniformly in the appointed period, 
could have been formed by chance ? He might as well 
assert that if innumerable figures of the four and twenty 
letters which form the alphabet were casually thrown from 
some high place upon the ground, they would fall so dis- 
posed and arranged as to form a complete dictionary, ency- 
clopedia, or any other book ; whereas it would be a very 
great wonder if even one small connected sentence could 
be found in the whole confused mass. If chance funned 
24 



186 A MEMOIR OF 

the world, why has it not somewhere or other formed upon 
the earth a temple, a house, or a city ? Yet this is so far 
from ever having been the case, that should a man be cast 
upon a desolate island, and find there a building of any 
kind, however rude, it would never enter his head that it 
came there by chance ; that it was produced by an earth- 
quake or had stood there from the first construction of the 
world. No ; he would conclude that some intelligent being 
had been there and that the building was the effect of his 
labor and skill. Or should he find there but one sheet of 
paper with writing on it containing sense and elegance of 
diction ; do you suppose he would think it had been pro- 
duced by the dashes of an unguided pen, or the rude scat- 
tering of ink upon the paper ? No, my children, you are 
convinced that no man in his senses could be so absurd. 
He would not only conclude that some man, but that a man 
who had received the benefits of education had been there. 
Look, then, around you, my beloved children, observe with 
an understanding mind, the beauty, order, and if I may be 
allowed the expression, the regular variety of animate and 
inanimate nature, then lift up your hearts in devout adora- 
tion to the Great First Cause ; that Supreme Intelligence 
that formed, supports and governs all, and say : Father 
we are thy children ; we are weak and blind and helpless ; 
assist us with thy power ; teach us by thy wisdom ; guard 
us with thy mercy. Teach us, Father, to know, to love 
and serve thee in an acceptable manner ; give us that wis- 
dom which leadeth to salvation." 

Mr. Alworth then arose and offered a devout prayer to 
the God of all for the safety and eternal welfare of his 
family; and having recapitulated to his family the many 
reasons for their faith in the Holy Scriptures and conclud- 
ing with " Lord help us to understand and believe aright," 
he retired to his chamber. — Biblical Dialogues, vol. I, p. 59. 



MRS. SUSANNA ROWSON. 187 

In the autumn of the same year this gifted and 
industrious lady published a volume of historical 
exercises for the purpose, as she avers, " of awaken- 
ing a laudable curiosity for the reading of history." 
The title of the work is Exercises in History, Chrono- 
logy and Biography in question and answer for the use 
of schools, comprising Ancient History, Greece, Rome, 
etc. Modern History, England, France, Spain, Portu- 
gal, etc. ; the discovery of America, Rise, Progress and 
final Independence of the United Slates. By Susanna 
Roivson, author of Biblical Dialogues, etc., etc. 

It is in the form of question and answer as taught 
in her academy, and I know not where so much of 
what is really valuable in history can be found re- 
corded in so small a compass as in the one hundred 
and seventy pages of this little compend. In her 
preface the author very touchingly refers to her 
long career as a teacher, her love of America and 
the proximity of the closing hour of life : 

" Out of sixty years which I have been permitted 
to exist in this transitory world, twenty-five have 
been devoted to the cultivation of the minds of the 
. youth of my dear adopted country, America ; in 
particular, the young ladies of Boston and its 
vicinity. Many leisure hours in early life were de- 
voted to their amusement, and I trust I can say 
that among the productions of my pen I have never 



188 A MEMOIR OF 

promulgated a sentence that could militate against 
the best interests of religion, virtue and morality. 
The morning of life has declined ; the sun has 
passed the meridian and the shadows of evening are 
quickly advancing ; soon will the gloom of night 
enshroud me, hut to my latest hour I shall devote 
my leisure to the improvement or innocent amuse- 
ment of youth. 

Boston, Oct. 12, 1822." 



MBS. SUSANNA BOWSON. 189 



CHAPTER XIX. 

While through this changing world we roam 

From infancy to age; 
Heaven is the Christian pilgrim's home, 

His rest at every stage. — James Montgomery. 

Under the pressure of many literary and benevo- 
lent labors, cares and anxieties for the welfare of 
others, Mrs. Rowson's health now began seriously 
to decline ; and, though in her descent towards the 
" dark valley " her heart was upheld by an unfalter- 
ing trust in God, she still experienced moments of 
sadness and sorrow at the thought of her approach- 
ing dissolution. The fear that she might be left to 
die unheeded and alone, would sometimes cast its 
darkling shadow over her confiding soul. Her 
kindred had fallen one after another by land or sea; 
her father died in 1805 ; her last remaining brother, 1 



2 Robert Haswell, her oldest brother, named from his uncle, 
Robert Haswell of the British navy, who died November 10, 1800, 
sailed around the world in the ship Columbia Rediviva and kept a 
journal of the voyage from 1787 to 1789. He also kept the log 
book of the same vessel in another voyage under Capt. Gray, ex- 
tending from August 14, 1791, to May, 1 793. It was during this 
voyage that Capt. Gray discovered Columbia river, cast anchor in 
its spacious bay, and bestowed on it the name of his vessel. In 
his Astoria, p. 38, Irving says : " The Columbia is believed to be 
the first ship that made a regular discovery and anchored within 
its waters, and it has since borne the name of thai vessel." These 
books are beautifully written, and are still in the possession of 



190 A MEMOIR OF 

John Montresor Haswell, died in 1810; "William 
Bowson, a natural son of her husband, whom this 
noble lady loved and cherished as her own, had been 
lost in Boston harbor on his return from a long 
voyage at sea ; her school had been relinquished ; 



John J. Clarke, Esq., of Boston. Robert Haswell and liis brother 
John Montresor Haswell, were officers and greatly distinguished 
themselves on board the Boston, in the sharp engagement with 
the French corvette, Le Berceau, in the month of November, 1800. 
Lieutenant Robert Haswell left the naval service at the peace es- 
tablishment, 1801, and sailed in August in the same year, in the 
Louisa, fitted out by Capt. John Gray, for the north-west coast, 
and was lost on his return home. He married Mary, daughter of 
Joseph Cordis, merchant of Charleslown, Oct. 17, 1797, by whom he 
had 1, Mary, m. George Murdock of Boston, May 19, 1819, and had 
Ellen Haswell, m. the Rev. Samuel Osgood ; and Eliza A. S. m. C. E. 
Soale, Esq. 2, Rebecca Cordis, m. John J. Clarke, Esq., son of the 
Rev. Pitt Clarke, of Boston, May 25, 1830, and has Mary Lemist 
Clarke, m. John A. Hanson, and Haswell Cordis Clarke. The widow 
of Lieut. Robert Haswell, m. John Lemist, who was lost in the ill 
fated Lexington, in 1840. She died in Boston, November 23, 18G8, 
aged eighty-seven years. William Haswell, the second brother of 
Mrs. Rowson, was master of a vessel sailing out of Boston. He m. 
Miss Nancy Bull, and died sine prole. 

John Montresor, her youngest brother, named from Col. John 
Montresor of the British army, became a midshipman in our navy, 
1800, and received the thanks of congress for his signal valor in 
the war with Tripoli. He was promoted to a lieutenancy, February 
26, 1807. He died of yellow fever, in Charleston, S. C, 1810, leav- 
ing no issue. The Haswell famify is of Scottish origin and 
espoused the cause of Charles Edward Stuart. Robert, the grand- 
father of Mrs. Rowson, died 1766, aged seventy-five years. Her 
own father, William, was commissioned as lieutenant, 1756. A rela- 
tive, Anthony Haswell, came from Portsmouth, Eng., to this country 
prior to the revolution, settled in Bennington, Vt., where he esta- 
blished the Gazette, which he conducted with ability till his death. 
May 27, 1816. He was an estimable man, and left many descend- 
ants. 



MRS. SUSANNA ROWSON. 191 

and though she had herself educated, soothed and 
blessed so many of her sex, the sad feeling still 
came over her, that she must pass away with none 
to bend above her pillow and to close her dying eye. 
In such an hour of sadness and depression a little 
prior to her decease, she penned the following pa- 
thetic lines : 

To Miss Rebecca Cordis Haswell. 

i. 

Rebecea, ray loved one, the last of thy race, 

Thy father still lives in his sister's fond heart ; 

Though long past the time, yet can memory trace 
The hour when necessity urged us to part. 

II. 

He sobbed as he rested his head on my shoulder, 
And said : " To thy heart be my infant babes dear ; 

And my wife, if I never again should behold her, 
Transfer thy affection, dear Susan, to her." 

ill. 

I ne'er have forgotten the vow I then gave thee, 
My first, dearest brother, protector and friend ; 

And though ' twas thy fate that no power could save thee ; 
My love for thy orphans can ne'er know an end. 

IV. 

Though my life's feeble taper, its last flicker throwing, 
On thy offspring, just rising, gleams fitfully round, 

My heart's latest beat its kind wishes bestowing, 
On them and on theirs, shall expend its last bound. 



192 A MEMOIR OF 

V. 

My dear loved Rebecca, when looking around me, 

I see desolation extending its wing ; 
Nor father, nor mother, nor brothers surround me, 

Time seems to have taken from death its last sting. 

VI. 

For even the son I adopted and cherished, 

Whose grateful affection was balm to my breast, 

In the bloom and the beauty of manhood has perished, 
And lies on the margin of waters at rest. 

VII. 
But thou art still spared ; my dear Mary remains ; 

And a long valued friend to my heart is restored, 
And Hope's buoyant pinion its vigor retains ; 

Whilst I look on my treasure ; exult in the hoard. 

VIII. 
grant, gracious Heaven, I may not be left 

Forsaken and lonely and useless to lie ; 
Of friend and connections and daughters bereft ; 

Un pitied to suffer, unheeded to die. 

IX. 

May one gentle bosom support me when dying, 
May one gentle eye shed a tear on my shrine ; 

Rebecca, I feel when my soul shall be flying, 

Perhaps the kind tear; the last care may be thine." 

S. R. 



The author's wish was gratified. The sufferings 
of her closing hours were soothed by the assiduous 



MBS. SUSANNA ROWSON. 193 

and kind attentions of Miss Fanny M. Mills, Miss 
Rebecca C. Haswell and Miss Susan Johnston, 
whom she always called her children, and whose 
devotion she most gratefully appreciated and ac- 
knowledged to the last. In the arms of these 
affectionate and loving pupils, and in the hope of a 
blessed immortality, Mrs. Rowson expired on the 
second day of March, 1824, at the age of sixty-three 
years, and was entombed on Thursday following in 
the family vault No, 14, of her friend, Mr. Gotlieb 
Graupner, beneath St. Matthew's church, 1 South 
Boston. 

In recording her death, the newspapers speak of 
her as " distinguished for her talents, virtues and 
intelligence;" as an " eminent preceptress;" as a 
"model of industry;" a "great economist;" of 
"remarkable conversational powers," and " to her 
charities," says a writer in the Boston Gazette, " there 
was no end." A few days subsequent to her decease, 
a fine poem over the signature of J. E., descriptive 
of her character and virtues, appeared in the Colum- 
bian GentineL from which I make this extract : 



'This church was demolished in 18G6, and the remains of bodies 
not claimed by relatives were transferred to Mount Hope Ceme 
tery, where all that was mortal of this excellent woman now reposes. 
It is hoped that some suitable monumenl will he erected to her 

memory. 

25 



194 A MEMOIR OF 

" * * * I knew 

Some twenty years ago this lady's worth 

As an instructress, when around her sat 

Thirty fair misses ready at her beck 

To draw the needle with the silken thread 

Through the framed specimen of female art ; 

To trace the forms of nature with their tints 

And various shades with pliant pencil dipped 

In their appropriate colors ; or to say what kings 

And people and what warriors too 

That fight their battles ; what the world was once, 

And what it still remained, they learned. Then, too, 

All that the female mind required to form 

A bulwark 'gainst the assaults of human art 

Or intellectual weakness, or raise 

The aspiring genius to celestial themes. * * * 

But who can measure all her worth, or find 

A rival to her industry, or tell 

What deeds her needle, pencil, or her pen 

In leisure hour performed ? " 

The most elaborate notice of her life and charac- 
ter, however, was written by Samuel L. Knapp, 
Esq., and appeared in the Boston Gazette, soon after 
her death. 



MllS. SUSANNA ROW SON. 195 



CHAPTER XX. 

Their works do follow them. — St. .John. 

In her religious views, Mrs. Rowson was, as I 
have said, an Episcopalian, and in her later years a 
regular attendant on the preaching of the Rev. Dr. 
John Sylvester Gardiner, at Trinity church. Her 
piety was intelligent, ardent, active and sincere. 
She believed that religion consisted mainly in 
diffusing the sunshine of love through a genial 
temper of mind, through pleasant words and deeds 
of beneficence. Her heart was a temple filled with 
the music of grateful emotion, which was ever roll- 
ing forth in golden strains of charity. She was a 
rigid economist, in order that she might be a liberal 
almoner of the bounties of her Master. She re- 
ceived into her family and educated several young 
ladies gratuitously, and led them into the way of 
obtaining for themselves an honorable support. 
She delighted especially in making young people 
happy, and her pleasant " God bless you, my 
darling," was indeed a precious benediction. 

She was awakened on one bitter cold winter 
night by one of the family who came to tell her 



196 A MEMOIR OF 

that somebody was at her wood pile stealing wood. 
" God help the poor creatures," she in pity replied, 
" if they need it enough to come for it on such a 
night as this, let them have it and welcome." 

She took a profound interest in the Fatherless 
and Widow's Society, and her scholars even could 
tell by the vivacity of her spirits when any new 
object of charity had been assisted, or when a 
meeting of that excellent society was at hand. The 
misfortune of persons and families connected with 
the stage ever awakened in her heart the liveliest 
sympathy, and many a poor actress has had occa- 
sion to remember her refreshing words of counsel 
and her charities with equal delicacy and heartiness 
bestowed. 

If her matrimonial life was not happy, no one 
discovered it by any want of kindness or attention 
on her part. She was, as every one who knew her 
testifies, a most devoted wife. Her story of Sarah is 
her own. Whatever she deemed her duty, that she 
made her pleasure. Though worn with illness and 
fatigue, she was always up at night with a bright 
fire and some little delicacy on her table to give 
her husband cheerful welcome home. But during 
these long vigils she was never idle. With a circle 
of young ladies seated around her and conversing 
or reading by turns some interesting book, she threw 



MRS. SUSANNA ROWSON. 197 

off an amount of needle work for the household, or 
for the poor, almost incredible. 

In regard to industry, she has never been ex- 
celled. She suffered not a moment to be lost. 
Rising early, ordering all things systematically, 
working steadily, cheerfully and rapidly, she as- 
tonished every one by the advancement she made 
in learning, and by the ease and celerity with which 
she executed what to other minds appeared hercu- 
lean labors. By her own untiring efforts she ac- 
quired the treasures both of ancient and modern 
history ; she learned the French and Latin lan- 
guages; she obtained a good knowledge of music 
and could play quite skillfully on the piano and 
guitar; she was an elegant dancer; she became a 
proficient in painting, drawing, and embroidery; 
she learned to navigate a ship during a voyage 
across the ocean ; she managed the concerns of her 
household with great wisdom, neatness, and eco- 
nomy ; she governed and taught with consummate 
ability a large boarding and day school ; she wrote 
many articles expressly for that school ; she en- 
tertained a great deal of fashionable company ; 
she took an active part in society, in literature, 
politics and religion; she visited the poor and 
needy ; she corresponded largely with her friends 
in Europe and America ; she wrote for the periodi- 



198 A MEMOIR OF 

cal press continually, and while in the midst of these 
varied employments, sometimes gave the public a 
volume or two a year as an extra presentation. 
She was a living woman. Son dme, as Madam De 
Stael has said, se mele a tout. And yet the dignity 
of her demeanor as a lady was never compromised ; 
for every thing she touched was brightened by her 
genius ; and her delicate sense of propriety in- 
scribed the circle carefully wherein true woman- 
hood may develop its full power and most 
imperially confer its benediction on the world. 

Our literary ladies but too often make a sacrifice 
of the domestic graces to the pen ; but she con- 
sidered writing the improvement of a leisure 
moment merely, and had so fine a sense of what 
belonged to a woman's sphere in the direction of 
her family, such an innate love of order and such 
executive power withal, that the arrangements of 
her household were as perfect, the spreading of her 
table as exquisitely neat, as if her whole attention 
had been confined to them alone. 

The versatility of this gifted lady's talent is most 
remarkable. Madame De Genlis once observed 
that she had so mastered twenty arts that by any 
one of them she could obtain a livelihood. This 
might be truly said of Mrs. Rowson ; but her favorite 
employment was to teach. In this delightful vo- 



\rns. susanwa bowson. 199 

cation, she had few, if any, equals in her day. She 
possessed preeminently the very first element of 
successful teaching; a large, warm, loving heart. 
At the same time she was dignified and command- 
ing in look and gesture. "While she gained her 
pupil's love, she secured, also, her reverence and 
respect. There was that in her large, dark, pierc- 
ing eye, which seemed to detect a falsehood in- 
stantly. But though severe in probing insincerity 
to the very quick, she held the balm of gentleness 
in willing baud to heal the wound. Inslruire, c'est 
inspirer, most truly says the accomplished author 
of & Education des Mfres, and this rare faculty 
Mrs. Rowson had. Original, fertile in expedient, 
sprightly, eloquent, to be sure she was ; but above 
all this, she had the liveliest poetic sympathy, she 
had a shining mark in view, and in aspiring to attain 
it, she inflamed the hearts of her dear pupils with 
her own emotions and bound them to her and to learn- 
ing as by fascination thrugh the potent witchery of 
her own strong and unselfish Christian love. 

So deeply did she, through the might of her 
gentleness, impress the lineaments of her own cha- 
racter upon her pupils that the few of those thou- 
sands whom she educated still remaining, do after 
the lapse of more than half a century, cherish her 
memory as tenderly as a mother's ; and still repeat 



200 A MEMOIR OF 

her words of wisdom as reverently and recount her 
virtues as lovingly as those of the sainted one from 
whom they drew their being. 

Through the young ladies then of the past genera- 
tion, Mrs. Rowson exercised a most benign and 
blessed influence upon the morals and the manners 
of New England. While the votary of fashion was 
wasting time and talents in the gay round of frivo- 
lous amusement, she was imprinting the indellible 
marks of her genius upon the polished pillars of 
the temple of our greatness ; while the brawling 
politician was wasting breath in vain complaints 
against the discords in the music of the church and 
state, her cunning fingers were busily employed in 
tuning the unseen strings into the perfect harmony. 
The power behind the throne in this birthland of 
freedom is the mother. The artistic hand of Mrs. 
Rowson made good mothers. One of them writes 
to me : " Six ladies who were at her school with me, 
I am still acquainted with. They have all made 
good wives and mothers; have reared large fami- 
lies; some of their sons have become distinguished 
men, and thus these ladies have fulfilled the destiny 
which Napoleon considered woman's highest glory; " 
and whenever I have had the pleasure of meeting 
a pupil of this celebrated teacher, I have invariably 



MRS. SUSANNA ROWSON. 201 

found her to be a woman of intelligence, refine- 
ment and exalted virtue. 

In such mothers, in such children, in such influ- 
ences, diffused and gentle as the aroma of the 
flowers borne by the winds across the desert, Mrs. 
Rowson lives amongst us still. The echoes of her 
gentle voice are murmuring sweetly still. The 
gems she touched with beauty sparkle still. The 
spirit she evoked is breathing and the strings she 
struck are quivering still ; the life she lived is 
eloquently speaking still, and as the tide of our 
national glory rolls along, will be most eloquently 
discoursing still ; and may we not believe that when 
the Master shall make up his jewels at the final 
audit, this accomplished writer, this faithful wife, 
this loving teacher, this blessed almoner of God's 
sweet mercies to the poor, this humble, earnest 
and adoring Christian, will, surrounded by the 
radiant gems of her own polishing, and beaming 
in etherial light, live still ! 



FINIS. 



20 



MRS. ROWSON'S PUPILS. 



It would be impossible to give tbe names of all the ladies 
who bad tbe benefit of her immediate instruction ; but from 
the papers now before me I am enabled to make the follow- 
ing record : 

Amory, the Misses, daughters of R. Greene Amory, Esq., of 

Roxbury. 
Ayer, H., Manchester, N. H. 
Bartlett, Julia, daughter of Dr John Bartlett, Roxbury. 

She was an excellent reader. She m. Mr. Hill. 
Bartlett, Hannah, m. John Porter, Newburyport. 
Bartlett, Laura, Haverhill, N. H. 
Bishop, Miss, Medford, m. N. Parsons. 
Bishop, Rebecca. 
Bliss, Louisa, Haverhill, N. H. 
Boyd, Miss, Portland. 

Bradlee, Susan. Mrs. R. wrote lines on her death. 
Brooks, Lucy, daughter of Gov. Jobn Brooks, and b. June 

16, 1775 ; m. Rev. O'Kill Stuart. 
Burgess, Sarah. 
Burroughs, Eliza. 
Burton, A. M. She delivered the introductory address at 

the exhibition, Oct. 27, 1803. 
Casey, Miss. 
Child, Isabella. 
Christie, Nancy. 
Claiborne, Emily. 
Coverly, Sarah G., m. E. G. Ware. She attended Mrs. R.'s 

school in Federal St., Boston, and rode in the carriage with 

her when she removed to Medford. 
Dane, Miss, Gloucester. 
Dexter, " " 

Dewolf, Misses, Bristol, R. I. 



204 MRS. ROWSON'S PUPILS. 

Dow, Mary, Haverhill, N. H. 

Downs, Clarissa, Boston. 

Downs, Harriet. 

Drake, Maria P., Northwood, N. II., sister of S. G. Drake, 
Esq., the distinguished antiquary. 

Duncan, Nancy, Concord, N. H. 

Eaton, Miss. 

English, Mary, Brighton. 

Parmer, Ann Maria, niece of Mrs. Baring, of Newport, R. I. 

Field, Sophia. 

Fiske, Mehetable, Natick, rn. Rufus Fiske. 

Fougue, Henrietta Maria, Newburyport. 

French, Caroline. 

French, Catharine. 

Gay, Caroline, m. Caleb Eddy, Boston. 

Giles, Narcissa, Newburyport. 

Gray, Lucia, m. Samuel Swett. She was daughter of Win. 
Gray, of Medford. 

Graupner, Catharine C, Boston, m. George Cushing. 

Graupuer, Olivia H., Boston. 

Greene, Mary Ann, m. Judge Hubbard, Boston. 

Greene, Charlotte, m. Wm. Butters, Pittsfield, N. H. 

Hale, Mary Ann, m. Dr. Nathanael Lowe, Dover, N. H. 

Hale, Martha. 

Halliburton, Miss, Portsmouth, N. H. 

Hammond, Julia, Brookline. 

Hamlin, Miss. 

Harris, Miss. 

Haswell, Mary. 

Haswell, Rebecca Cordis, m. J. J. Clarke, Esq. 

Hill, Lucy, m. Oliver Everett. 

Holbrook, Eliza Edwards, Wrentham. 

Holbrook, Mary, m. Silas Holbrook, Wrentham. 

Hull, Julia, daughter of Gen. Wm. Hull. 

Hull, Caroline, " 

Hull, Rebecca, " 

Hutchins, Caroline, m. Mr. Thatcher. 

Huntington, Miss, Norwich, Conn., m. the Rev. Dr. Hooker. 

Ingraham, Misses. 

Jackson, P. W. She gave the closing address at the ex- 
hibition, October 27, 1803. 

Johnson, Frances, Hillsborough, N. H. 

Johustou, Susan, niece of Mrs. Rowson. 



MBS. ROW SON' 8 PUPILS. 205 

Jones, Misses, four daughters of Alexander Jones, Provi- 
dence, R. I. 

Knapp, Caroline, ni. Dr. Hayward. 

Knox, Juliana. Mrs. Rowson wrote some lines on her 
decease addressed to her mother. Sec ante p. 148. 

Lambert. Misses. Ladies remarkable for personal beauty. 

Lane, Mary, Ten Hills Farm, Medford. 

Lanman, Miss, Norwich, Conn. 

Leach, Miss, Boston. 

Mann, Mary Ann, Wrentham. 

M'Clure, Ruth. 

Mansfield, Misses, two, Gloucester. 

Means, Mary Ann, Amherst, N. H., died Sept. 12, 1812. 

Means, Jane, " " Nov. 2, 1805. 

Melleu, Miss, m. Prof. Levi Frisbee. 

Mellen, Miss, Cambridge, sister of the preceding. 

Mills, Frances M. Mrs. R. adopted her as her daughter 
about 1810. 

Montgomery, Ann. 

Montgomery, Mary K., daughter of Gren. John Montgomery 
of Haverhill, N. H., m. Samuel Batchelder, Esq., Cam- 
bridge, d. 1859. 

Montgomery, Myra. 

Montgomery, Nancy. 

Morton, Miss Mary, Freetown, sister of Governor Marcus 
Morton. 

Norton, Jerusha, m. Josiah J. Fiske, Wrentham. 

Noyes, Mary, Newburyport. 

Neil, Miss. 

Page, Lydia, Charlestown. 

Parsons, Eliza, daughter of Chief Justice Parsons. 

Parsons, Lydia. 

Porter, Caroline, a fine scholar. 

Powell, Isabella, Boston. 

Pratt, Susan. 

Price, Susan, Jamaica, W. Indies. 

Price, Frances. 

Proctor, Elizabeth. 

Ripley, Miss. 

Robbins, Martha, Lexington, Mass. 

Rose, Anne, from London, Eng., m. Joseph Swan. She 
opened a day school for gh'la in Medford in 1811, and died 
in 1859. 



206 MRS. BO WSON 'S P UPILS. 

Rowson, Charlotte, m. William P. Johnston of Philadelphia, 

and died July, 1855. 
Russell, Eliza, JJoston. 
Sheafe, Mary Huske, m. Edward Cutts, lawyer, Portsmouth, 

N. H., d. 1868. 
Swan, Hannah, Medford. 

Swan, Peggy, Medford. An assistant in Mrs R.'s school. 
Thomson, Catharine, Medford. 
Trask, Misses, three, Gloucester. 
Tufts, Peggy. 

Wait, Sarah, Medford, m. S. Symmes and then J. Howe. 
Wait, Harriet. 

Waldron, Miss, Portsmouth, N. H. 
Warner, Mary. 
Waterhouse, Maria Towle. 
West, Eliza, Salem, Mass. 
Whittemore, Eliza, Cambridge. 
Whittemore, Hannah Maria. 
Whittemore, Sarah Anne. 
Williams, Mary. Afterwards a successful teacher in Rox- 

bury. 



INDEX 



Abington. Mass., 29, 30, 31, 55, 

68, 83. 
Abthorpe, Col, (Wm, Haswell), 

57, -.8,59,60,65,00,67,0!). 
Adams, Elisha, 155. 

Isaac, 146. 

Jobn, 18, 98. 

Samuel, 17, 35. 
2Bneas, 55. 
Alexander, 145. 
Allen, Wm., 30. 
Allerton, 10, 11, 13. 
Alwortb, Mr. & Mrs., 180, 186. 
Anacreon, 91. 
Andrews, David, 68. 
Annapolis, Md., 74. 
Arnault, A. V., 86. 
Arnold, Dr. Samuel, 167. 
Auld Robin Gray, 87. 
Autumn Lady, 87. 
Ayling, Master, 175. 



B. 

Bachelder, Mrs. Samuel, 106. 
Baldwin, Mrs. James P., 171. 
Baltimore, 74, 76, 91. 
Bancroft, Hannah S., 33. 
Barker, John, 26. 

Francis, 26. 
Barreault, Capt., 139. 
Bartlett, Dr. Joeoah, 99. 

W.J., 163. 
Beal, Israel, 28, 29. 
Beatb, Margaret, 143. 
Beauchamp, 47. 
Bennet, Mrs. A. M., 77. 
Bennington, Vt., 190. 



Bernard, Gov. Francis, 17. 
Hetty Blackberry, 86. 
Bigelow, Timothy, 100. 
Bingham, Mrs., 7(i. 
Binney, Amos, 25. 

Spencer, 25. 
Blakeney, Lt. Col. Grice, 52. 

Lucy, 52, 5:5. 
Bliss, Caroline, 153. 

Louisa, 151, 152, L53. 
Boileau, Nicolas, 48. 
Borrowdale, Eng., 56. 
Boston, 7, 10, 15, 17, 18. etc 
Boston Lighthouse. 56, 57. 
Boston (South), 103. 
Bounce, 87. 

Bradlee, Mrs. Josiah, 123. 
Bradley, Eliza, 150. 
Bray, John, 171, 173, 175, 176. 

Family, 173. 
Brooke, Henry, 86. 
Brooks, Rev. Charles, 100, 108. 

Gov. John, 100, 101. 
Buckingham, Joseph T., 33, 49, 

93, 154, 161. 
Bull, Nancy, 190. 
Bunker Hill, 19. 
Buuyan, John, 51. 
Burgess, Sallie, 107. 
Burgoyne, Gen. John, 35. 
Burke, John, 5. 
Burney, Miss Frances, 50, 77. 
Burns, Robert, 51. 



Caesar, L45. 

Calmet, Augustine. 181. 
Cambridge, Mass., 101, L05, 123, 
1 11. 



208 



INDEX. 



Camden, William, 5. 

Camp, 183. 

Campbell, Robert, 40, 76. 

Carlisle, David, 143. 

Carnagon, Daniel, 22. 

Carney, Eliza Josephine, 12. 

Carr, Mr., 75. 

Cary, Matthew, 36, 76. 

Alice & Phoebe, 141. 
Carter, Mrs. Elizabeth, 130. 
Catalina, 87. 
Castle William, 18. 
Cervantes, Miguel de, 51. 
Charles I, 48. 
Charleston, S. C, 190. 
Charlestown, Mass., 21, 190. 
Cheshire, Mrs., 87. 
Church, Dr. Benj., 127. 
Clarke, J. J., 190. 

Haswell Cordis, 190. 

Mary & Mary Lemist, 190. 

The Rev. Pitt, 190. 
Claypole, David, 87. 
Clementi, 102. 
Cobbett, William, 74, 81. 
Cockburne, Lady George, 36. 
Cohasset, Mass., 6. 
Coleridge, S. T., 10. 
Columbia, 145, 167, 168, 173. 
Columbus, 49. 
Constantia (Mrs. John Murray), 

141. 
Cooke, J. P., 34, 37, 39. 
Cooper, James F., 140. 
Cordis, Joseph, 190. 

Marv, 190. 
Cork, Ireland, 18. 
Corneille, Pierre, 127. 
Cortez, Hernando, 183. 
Cotton, John, 126. 
Covent Garden, 34. 
Covvper, We, 1. 
Crane, Map, 21. 
Cunningham, Ruth, 14. 
Gushing, T., 28. 



D. 

Dalrymple, Col. William, 18. 
Darnley, Sarah, 118. 
Davenport, Eliza, 173. 
Deal, Eng., 7. 



Dean, John Ward, 3. 
Thomas, 114. 

Derby, Conn., 119. 
the Earl of, 46. 

Derwentwater, 54. 

Des Forge, Mons., 103. 

Bernardine, Miss., 103. 

Deshoulieres, Madame Antoin- 
ette, 36. 

Detroit, Mich., 119. 

Devonshire, the Duchess of, 34, 
35. 
William, Duke of, 34. 

Doggett, the Rev. Simeon, 107. 

Dorchester, Mass., 21. 

Douglass, William, 20. 

Drake, Samuel G., 8. 

Druggett, Mrs., 87. 

Dryden, John, 14. 

Dublin, 40. 

Ducis, Jean F., 127. 

Dudley Reuben & Rachel, 92, 
93, 95, 97. 
William, 82. 

Duyckinck, Evert A. 129. 



E. 

Edinburgh, 73. 
Everett, Edward, 171. 



F. 

Falconer, William, 5. 
Fearing, Albert, 26. 

John, 28. 
Fisher, Jabez, 28. 
Fitch, the Rev. Elijah, 126. 
Fontaine, Jean de la, 127. 
Fort Warren, Mass., 10. 
Foster, John, 155. 
Francis, Philip, 133. 
Franklin, Lt., 52, 53. 

Mr., 76. 
Frothingham, Richard, 20. 



G. 

Gardiner, Dr. John, S. J, 195. 
Gay, Dr. Ebenezer, 26, 30. 



INDEX. 



209 



Genlis, Madame do, 105, 198. 
George III, 33. 

IV. 35. 
Gilbert, Samuel, 114. 
Gilchrist, Mrs.. 160. 
Goldsmith, Oliver, 51. 
Gould, 15. 

Miss Hannah F., 141. 

JohnE., 170. 
Graupner, Gotlieb & family, 102, 
103. 

Mrs., 151. 
Graves, Admiral, 18. 
Gray, Capt, John, 189, 190. 
Great Brewster, 8. 
Gregory, John, M.D., 118. 
Griffin, 22. 

Griswold, Bp., A. V., 180. 
Guthrie, William, 143. 
Guy Mannering, 51. 



H. 

Ha<jen, Peter von, 102. 
Halifax, N. S., 31, 56, 83. 
Hall, Mr., 178. 
Hancock, John, 17. 
Hanover, Germany, 102. 
Hanson, John A., 190. 
Harlow, Lucinda, 35. 
Haswell, Anthony, 190. 

Eliza A. S., 190. 

Ellen, 190. 

John Montressor, 6, 189, 
190. 

Mary, 110, 154, 155, 190. 

Rebecca Cordis, 190, 191, 
192, 193. 

Susan, 9, 13, 17, 18, 23. 

Robert, 6, 142, 189, 190. 

William, 5, (i, S, 12, 14, 18, 
19. 
Haverhill, N. II.. 109. 151. 
Heath, Col. William, 20, 31. 
Hilliar, Mrs. C, [Comoford,] 102. 
Hills, Capt. John, 103. 

Mary, 103. 
Hingham, Mass., 11, 20, 26, 27, 

38, 29, 30,55, 65,68,83. 
Hoare, Prince, 86. 
Eomer, 51 , 

Dr. Jonathan, 122, 123. 



Honora Martesia (Mrs. John 

Murray), 141. 
Hopkinton, Mass., 123. 
Horace, 133. 
House, E. G., 113. 
Howard, Meriel, 77. 
Hudson, Hezekiah, (J. 

Scarlett, 6. 
Hull, Mass., 11, 12, 13, 15, 17, 19, 
25, 27. 

on the Humber, Eng., 31. 

Gen. William & family, 119, 
120, 123. 
Humphreys, Col. David, 123. 
Hunt, Matthew, 12. 

Sarah Sophia, 172. 
Hutchins, Caroline, 110. 
Hutchinson, Thomas, 17. 



I. 
Irving, Washington, 189. 



Johnston, David Claypole, 88. 

Susan R., 88, 178, 179, 193. 

Thomas Murphy, 88. 

Mrs. Wm. P. (Rowson), 88. 

William, 87. 
Jones, 15. 



K. 

Keefe, John O., 86. 

Knapp, Samuel L., 35, 49, 54, 56, 

194. 
Knox, Juliana, 148. 

Mrs., 149. 



Lafayette, the Marquis de, 11. 
Lamartiiir, Alphonse de, 48. 
Lane, ('apt. Peter, 68. 
Laumont, Mr., lis. 
Lawrence, Abbott, 100. 
Leavitt, 30. 
Lee, .Mud John, 105. 



210 



INDEX. 



Lee, Misses Harriet & Sophia, 77. 
Leeds, Eng., 171, 173. 
Legouve, J. B., 123. 
Leinist, John, 190. 
Le Sage, 51. 
Lincoln, Calvin, 27. 

Solomon, 10, 29. 

Mrs. Sophia, 171. 

Stephen, 26. 
Lippincott, Sarah Jane, 141. 
Lively, frigate, 59. 
Lobden, Mrs., 12. 
Lodore, Eng., 54. 
London, Eng., 31, 32, 33, 34, 36. 

Bishop of, 149. 
Long Island, Mass., 18. 
Lord, George, 178. 

Georgiana, Miss, 178. 
Loring, 15. 

Lossing, Benson J., 75. 
Lovell's Island, 8, 12. 



M. 

Macaulay, Thomas B., 48. 
Mackay, Col., 18. 
Mackenzie, Henry, 50. 
McLellan, Isaac, 120. 
Marcellina, 87. 
Massinger, Philip, 74. 
Mease, James, 74. 
Medford, Mass., 100, 103, 105, 

107, 108, 119, 159. 
Middleton, Sir Charles, 35. 
Millaken, Clement, 12. 
Mills, Fanny M., 88, 178, 179, 
193. 

John, 178. 
Miln, Mr., 102. 
Milton, John, 20. 
Montgomery, Ann, 121 , 152. 

Gen. John, 109, 121. 

James, 189. 

Mary, 121. 

Myra, 147. 
Montraville, 47, 52. 
Montressor, Col. John, 190. 
Moie, Hannah, 114, 178. 
Morse, Jedidiah, 143. 
Mount Pleasant, Pa., 93. 
Mount Vernon, 144. 
Munsell. Joel, 1. 



Murdoch, George, 190. 
Murphy, Arthur, 87. 

Sarah, 88. 
Murray, Mrs. John, 114, 141. 
Musgrave, Susanna, 5. 

William, 6. 
Mystic River, Mass., 100. 



N. 

Nantasket, Mass., 6, 10, 11, 12, 
13, 15, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22, 55, 
57 59 

Napoleon I, 200. 

Narragansett, 11. 

Nason, Elias, 1, 3. 

Natchez, Miss., 141. 

Nevis, 139. 

Newburyport, Mass., 178. 

Newell, Timothy, 21. 

Newland, Eng., 54. 

Newton, Mass., 119, 120, 121, 
122, 123, 142. 

Newton, Mrs., 100. 

New York, 46, 178. 



O. 

Oberca, 92. 
O'Hara, Kane, 87. 
Oldham, John, 11. 
Opie, Amelia, 72. 
Ormrod, 76. 
Ormsby, Mrs., 87. 
Osgood, Dr. David, 109. 

the Rev. Samuel, 190. 
Ossiter, Lord, 56. 
Otis, James, 14, 17. 
Otoganoo, 95. 
Ouabi, 141. 



Paine, Robert Treat, 123. 
Parish, Dr. Elijah, 143. 
Parsons, Lydia, 114. 
Paul et Virginie, 51. 
Payne, John Howard, 123. 
Pearl St., Boston, 98. 
Pettix Island, Mass., 25. 



INDEX. 



211 



Philadelphia, Pa., 36, 40. 

Philip (Bang). 92. 

Pickle, Mrs., ss. 

Pitts, John, 29. 

Pizarro, 183. 

Pluto, 50. 

Pomfiret, John, 126, 127. 

Pomroy, Col. Seth, 18. 

Poole, Matthew, 181. 

Pope, Alexander, 14. L30. 

Porcupine, Peter (Win. Coh 

bett), 74, 85. 
Portland, Me.. 146. 
Portsmouth, Eng., 5, 0, 190. 
Powell, Charles S., 86. 
Prentice, the Rev. Solomon, 12. 
Prescott, Harriet, 178. 
Price, Madam Elizabeth, 123. 

Francis, 152. 
Prideaux, Humphrey, D.D., 181. 



Quickly, Dame, ST. 
Quiney, Mass., 11. 



i; 



Rachel, aunt, 93,97. 
Radcliffe, Ann, 50. 

Rainsford Island, Mass., 10. 

Pains Head, Mass., S. 
Rebecca, 55, 57, 61, 67, 70. 
Pees, James, 74. 
Richardson & Lord, 180. 
Robinson, John, 15. 
Roche, Regina Maria, 50. 
Rowson, Charlotte, Miss, 73, 74, 
87. 

Susanna, 1, 93, 94, etc. 

William, 33, 72, 74, 86, 87, 
109, 155. 190. 
Roxbury, Mass., 21, 154. 



S. 

St. Pierre, Bemardin de, 1. 
Salem, Mass., 123. 
Saltonstall, Leverett, 123. 

Sarah. 101, 1 IS, 119. 



Sa recant, Gov., 141. 

Judith, 141. 
Scipio, 145. 

Selfridge, Thomas O., 123. 
Shaffer, George, 154, 155. 
Shakespeare, 14. 51, 
Shelbourne, Celia, 77. 
Sheridan, Richard B., 86. 
Shuckford, S., 181. 
Siddons, Mrs. Sarah, 35. 
Si<ifourney, Lydia H., 141. 
Skiddaw, Eng., 53. 
Smith, Mrs. Samuel, 90. 
Snap, 87. 

Sneerwell, Lady, 86. 
Snow, 86. 
Sophia, 57, 61, 67. 
Soule, C. E., 190. 
South Cave, Eng., 142. 
Souther, 15. 
Spencer, Edmund, 14. 
Spencer, John, Earl of, 34. 
Spofford, Dr. Richard S., 178. 

Richard S., 178. 
Squantum, Mass., 21. 
Stackhouse, Thomas, 181. 
Stael, Madame de, 198. 
Stanley, Charlotte, 46, 47. 
Sterne, Lawrence, 36. 
Strawberry Hill, Mass., 13. 
Stuart, Charles Edward, 190. 
Stuart, Gilbert, 100. 
Sumner, Charles, 14(i. 
Swan, Hannah, 149, 159, 160. 

Peggy, 102, 160. 



T. 

Tait. John T., 88. 
Taunton, Mass., 107. 
Telegraph Hill, Mass., 10,11, 13. 
Temple, Charlotte, 46, 47, 52, 

56. 
Temple, Mr., 4S. 
Thaxter, Col. John, 20, 31. 

Dea. Joseph, 26. 
Thomson. Hester, 103. 

James, 90. 
Torrendal, Lady, 87. 
Tripoli, 190. 
Troy, 55. 
Tru'xton. Thomas, 138, 140. 



212 



INDEX. 



Tudor, William, 114, 123. 
Tupper, Ma]., 21, 22, 59. 
Tyler, Col. J., 86. 



V. 

Veazie, the Rev. Samuel, 12. 
Virgil, 133. 
Voltaire, M. A., 142. 
Vose, Elijah, 20. 

Maj., Joseph, 20, 21. 



W. 

Wadsworth, Gen. Jeremiah, 76. 
Walker, John, 143. 
Wallingston, Eng., 142. 
Wallow-Crag, Eng., 54. 
Walpole, Horace, 50. 
Ward, Gen., Artemas, 21, 27. 

A. H., 120. 
Warner, Mary, 107, 110. 
Warren, Mr., 172. 

John, M.D., 162, 163. 

J., 28. 
Washington, George, 19, 74, 75, 
90, 91, 99, 144, 173. 



Washington, Mrs., 76. 
Watertown, Mass., 120, 
Watson & Bangs, 48. 
Webster, Hannah, 41. 
Welby, Amelia, 140. 
West, John, 113, 143. 
Weymouth, Mass., 68. 
Whetcomb, John, 28. 
White, Edward L., 176. 
Whitlock, Mrs. Elizabeth, 76. 
Wignell, Thomas, 73, 74, 75, 87. 
Williams, Charles, 118. 
Williamson, J. B., 86, 89. 
Willig, S. G., 75. 
Winthrop, Jemima, 87. 
Woburn, Mass., 100. 
Woodward, Ebenezer & Eliza- 
beth, 6. 

Mary, 6. 

Rachel, 6. 

Smith, 6. 
Worcester, Mass., 92. 
Wriggley & Berriman, 78. 
Wyman, Joseph, 100. 



Young, Mr., 76., 



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